ABSTRACT
A transformation in early childhood education (ECE) has been occurring in Brazil since the Federal Constitution of 1988 incorporated daycare centers into the educational system. Research conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s showed the inadequacies in many Brazilian public daycare centers. In terms of a national discourse about the education of young children, European models remain quite seductive, despite pragmatist claims of a utopian idealism apparently ill-suited to the obvious difficulty of implementing them in the poorer regions of Brazil. Some of the positive curriculum developments were influenced by international successes in ECE, particularly in the European countries, discussions at conferences and in courses, and by books written by Brazilian experts in the area. The successful implementation of a Brazilian ECE curriculum requires a reorientation in the understanding that teachers have about young children’s development and the mediation processes for learning and development.
