SCIENTIFIC LITERACY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE THEORY OF OBJECTIVATION TO SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION
Scientific Literacy; Theory of Objectification; Early Childhood Education.
The objective of this research was to investigate the process of Scientific Literacy from the perspective of the Theory of Objectification in Early Childhood Education classes with five-year-old children, through a Teaching and Learning Activity (AEA) in the classroom, enabling the use of the cultural artifact clay filter for teaching and learning the topic of water filtration. This object is part of the didactic project of the research teacher and allows children to encounter historical and cultural ways of thinking about topics related to science, aiming at the materialization of knowledge and the transformation of the being. For the development of the research, the sociocultural context of the children, who are students of a municipal daycare that uses the clay filter to filter water, and the context of the research teacher who keeps memories of the cultural artifact and recognizes its importance for society were taken into consideration. The theoretical and methodological assumptions of the research were based on the Theory of Objectification, which influenced the elaboration of the activity, understood as joint work and considered as a methodological unit of analysis. The research is characterized as qualitative and the type of analysis used was multimodal, verifying from the verbal, gestural and visual semiotic modes evidence of the processes of objectification and subjectification. We used the data transcription model of Radford (2015) and the analysis device proposed by Camilotti, Plaça and Gobara (2019). The results obtained provide evidence that the AEA, planned and developed, from the perspective of OT, contributes to the promotion of Scientific Literacy. Also, they show through the productions carried out in groups with the help of cultural artifacts that the children are in the process of updating their knowledge (process of objectification) about water filtration and the changes in behavior are a consequence of the process of interaction during the joint work. It was possible to observe evidence of the process of subjectification in the manifestations of respect for each other, mutual collaboration and help in individual difficulties among the group.