The future of early childhood education lies in the present, and the present of early childhood education is the child as the focus of concern for society as a whole. This defines the importance of the BNCC in the context of childhood in Brazil. The national curriculum framework presupposes—and seeks to ensure from this point forward, through policies and implementation practices—the adoption, development, and refinement of this guiding document for the creation of educational programs focused on the earliest stages of human learning—a pedagogical advancement for the country.

In a brief summary, we will examine early childhood education—a recognized category within the Ministry of Education—which has a history spanning just over two decades. Yes, for those who don’t recall, it was only recently that early childhood education was actually incorporated into education policies as the foundation of a process that has been developing over many, many years.

Without funding provided by governments at all levels—municipal, state, and federal— we have moved from the 1980s—a time when early childhood education was virtually nonexistent, with the sole purpose of caring for children while working mothers carried out activities to support their families—to a different reality today that certainly combines activities to protect and support the children of working mothers, but also, and above all, educational initiatives for both these children from working-class backgrounds and all others.

Today, all children can attend school from a very young age. Here, we also take into account the reality in Brazil, where access to the public school system remains limited or nonexistent. Aside from this single condition, every child is able to attend school from the first months of life, in daycare centers designed to promote health, hygiene, and nutrition at its various stages—liquid, semi-solid, and solid—and to provide the stimulation and cognitive development outlined in the BNCC. 

In the past, without programs that truly took into account the child’s full range of potential, and without previous practices to build upon and improve, everything had to be built from scratch, and of course we encountered problems, we faced misunderstandings, and we went through trials until we arrived here at the national framework—which is not the end point, nor is it the whole picture—precisely because children need an educational project that keeps pace with their time, their development, and their social history.

Over the past 20 years, we have experienced a global revolution driven by the digital age, and children have integrated this reality into their overall development. Consequently, schools have had to rethink how to address this new reality. Even without knowing where to start, efforts were made—and much more needs to be done now, with the BNCC—to develop methodological practices that bring into the classroom the entire world that exists within each child, the entire world in which they live, including all the technologies it contains.

During this period, we’ve experienced educational fads—for some; misguided attempts—for others; and mismanagement—for many. Skills and competencies, project-based pedagogies, national curriculum frameworks, multiple intelligences, caring and educating—we’ve had a little of everything, but what is certain is that never in the history of Brazilian education have we had a document as guiding and as beneficial to early childhood education as the BNCC.

The document’s legitimacy is its first strength. Its development involved multiple perspectives from different groups, drawn from diverse social contexts, and, finally, a public consultation validated the work. The document’s second strength is that it presents parameters. These parameters are not—and should not be—understood as mandatory models, but rather as “benchmarks” that schools and school systems of any size can use as a reference. These benchmarks, referred to as skills and competencies, constitute a reference framework for a child’s potential at that particular stage of biological development, for example.

The exceptions were left for the document’s third positive point, the BNCC, which includes only 60% of these “measures,” leaving 40% of them to schools, school systems, municipalities, and educational organizations. Taking a country’s reality into account for the purpose of setting guidelines was a strong desire among educators, whether in public or private school systems. But giving each educational unit the freedom to propose its own conditions and contexts was an even greater desire.

At the conclusion of this process, the BNCC was established—a document that provides guidance and paves the way for us—parents, communities, educators, and governments—to view children as individuals with the potential for full cognitive development, while ensuring that every child has the right to play, integrate, propose ideas, participate, and fully experience all the dreams of childhood.

In terms of pedagogy, the BNCC has evolved from the former national curriculum frameworks (nature and society, identity and autonomy, oral and written language, logical-mathematical reasoning, visual arts, movement, and music) to the current fields of experience.

But, after all, what are experience fields?

In the BNCC, there are five of them, and they form the backbone of the educational project. This partial—rather than comprehensive—contribution, as we have already noted, is in fact part of the guiding framework envisioned and desired for early childhood education, since its completeness still requires local flavor and the integration of the context and reality of each educational unit—40%. When, finally, the work of administrators and educators—as they listen to their communities—is completed, we will, in fact, have a central framework of intent that will ultimately form a new curriculum relevant to children. In other words, the BNCC is not a ready-made curriculum; it is a kind of basic blueprint to be enriched, developed, tested, and approved by the entire community.

• The self, the other, and the "we"...
• Body, gestures, and movements...
• Lines, sounds, colors, and shapes...
• Listening, speaking, thinking, and imagination...
• Spaces, times, quantities, relationships, and transformations.

These are the five areas of experience identified by the grassroots community. Each one offers a framework that always considers the broader context of educational work. These include topics ranging from event planning to the frequent use of technology. In other words, it is about seeing and understanding the child in their own time. It is now up to schools to adopt focused and contextualized perspectives and to enrich—with local flavors—their foundation: the foundation of the child, the foundation of the family, and the foundation of society.

It is very important to make it clear that the national framework for early childhood education also offers other significant contributions, legitimized throughout the political and historical history of children. General competencies. That is the term. Here, the focus is on the school and its political-pedagogical project. This PPP must ensure, at all costs, all the general rights of basic education, which means that they begin in early childhood education and continue through the end of basic education in high school.

It is an expensive project—expensive for the school, expensive for society, and expensive for the educator. Expensive in the sense that it will require very valuable investments, and I’m not talking about finances. I am talking about human values, altruism, cooperation, volunteerism, and the educational craft—all of which have already been endorsed and legitimized by the National Education Law (LDB). Valuing and applying historically accumulated knowledge about the physical, social, cultural, and digital worlds to understand and explain reality, to continue learning, and to collaborate in building a just, democratic, and inclusive society is the first of these values, referred to in the National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC) as general competencies.

I speak of values because if schools do not understand that society as a whole views this movement as a non-negotiable human value, none of this can happen. It is impossible to imagine a child’s education today without the use of technology. It is impossible to conceive of any educational project without considering inclusion. Both are hallmarks of democracy and the future.

In line with this line of thinking, the second competency encourages us to exercise intellectual curiosity and draw on the scientific approach—including inquiry, reflection, critical analysis, imagination, and creativity—to investigate causes, develop and test hypotheses, formulate and solve problems, and create solutions (including technological ones) based on knowledge from various fields.

In other words, our children can think for themselves at school, they can make suggestions, and they can take the lead in their own development. This is a value, an approach, and a hallmark of an educational project. Far beyond being a skill to be developed, we must view this as a value for society—that children learn to take the lead in society at school as well. That is the new rule. 

Appreciating and enjoying diverse artistic and cultural expressions—from local to global—as well as participating in a variety of artistic and cultural production practices is another competency enshrined in the BNCC, and one that is particularly timely in the Brazilian context, where we witness daily conflicts surrounding the legitimacy of minority discourses, representation, and religious differences.

To this end, care was taken to note that the use of different forms of language—verbal (oral or visual-motor, such as Libras, and written), bodily, visual, auditory, and digital—as well as knowledge of artistic, mathematical, and scientific languages—to express themselves and share information, experiences, ideas, and feelings in different contexts and to create meaning that leads to mutual understanding.

In other words, one thing leads to another, and all of them lead the child to full, cosmic development, as envisioned by Montessori. Global issues are also part of the national framework for early childhood education; this marks a break from the approach that prevailed in early childhood education at the beginning of this century, which held that children should receive a locally focused education.

This long-resolved debate is addressed in the BNCC as a proposed competency—enabling children to argue based on facts, data, and reliable information in order to formulate, negotiate, and defend shared ideas, viewpoints, and decisions that respect and promote human rights, socio-environmental awareness, and responsible consumption at the local, regional, and global levels, while maintaining an ethical stance regarding care for oneself, others, and the planet.

One more point for the child, one more point for society, one more commitment at the grassroots level to childhood. The emotional aspect—which is of paramount importance to today’s educational work, since, as Wallon states, “emotion precedes language”—is also recognized here and must be incorporated into the school’s educational practices. Knowing oneself, valuing oneself, and taking care of one’s physical and emotional health—while understanding one’s place within human diversity and recognizing one’s own emotions and those of others, with self-reflection and the ability to manage them—are the principles that must inform initiatives at every level of education. 

And finally, within this context of developing general competencies, the BNCC also emphasizes practicing empathy, dialogue, conflict resolution, and cooperation; earning respect and promoting respect for others and for human rights; and embracing and valuing the diversity of individuals and social groups; acting individually and collectively with autonomy, responsibility, flexibility, resilience, and determination, making decisions based on ethical, democratic, inclusive, sustainable, and solidarity-based principles.

Thus, we conclude the guidelines on general competencies and turn our attention to the importance of working on social-emotional competencies—another innovation of the BNCC. In total, there are more than 50 social-emotional competencies proposed throughout basic education, and in my view, the very heart of this framework lies precisely in this work—emotion, support, and empathy have become the greatest challenge facing schools in times of social decline. Only human values, only collective and harmonious action, can guarantee us a humane future; otherwise, amid conflict upon conflict, we will ultimately descend into social savagery. Respect, human values, and coexistence—referred to in early childhood education as “socialization”—are the greatest benefits a child gains from participating in an educational program grounded in these principles.

Another important issue in the BNCC is the new division into stages. Previously, early childhood education did not take this division into account in its policy documents. Young children were provided with an educational program “adapted” from what was considered the priority for the next stage, between ages 3 and 5.

Today, the priority is the present time, the present moment, and the present context. In other words, there are specific approaches for each stage of a child’s development: before speech development begins, to stimulate it; there are approaches for the development and refinement of oral language; and there are approaches for the transition from speech to writing. All of this happens in a interconnected manner. The new classification (Infants—0 to 1 year and 6 months; Very Young Children—1 year and 7 months to 3 years and 11 months; Young Children—4 years to 5 years and 11 months) represents an evolution in terms of documentation but is, above all, an evolution in terms of attitude.

With this infusion of theories and procedures, it is now hoped that every school in Brazil will truly be a place for children—for beings in the process of becoming—who thrive on discovery and are revitalized by their imagination. It is hoped that children will develop a broad and majestic perspective on the world. It is hoped that socialization and commitment to others will serve as the guiding principle for an education of the present designed to resonate into the future.

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*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bett Brasil.
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