Babies are not just about neurons and money: Brazilian contributions to a broader perspective on Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Critical Perspectives on Policy and Discourse

Proposal

In recent decades, scientific production and legal documents have shown that a group that was previously overlooked has drawn attention: young children. With regard to the rights provided for them, children are already recognized as subjects of international law (Autor 1), with a strong emphasis on the rights to protection, provision and participation set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Considering the more current framework of focusing attention and policy on young children (early childhood), many countries elaborated National Action Plans (NAP) for Guaranteeing Childhood. For instance, the European Child Guarantee, adopted on 14 June 2021, was established as a highlight in the European Union's fight against child poverty, which led EU Member States to present national action plans for Guaranteeing Childhood, so that children's rights remain at the top of political agendas across Europe. In recent years, countries in different regions have also established national plans for young children, such as in Latin America (Dri & Barbosa, 2025). In these plans, early childhood education and care is highlighted as a key service for the defense and protection of childhood.
Regardless of legal achievements at national and international levels to protect children's rights, it is important to highlight the challenges still present in the current scenario: “[...] never before have children been the object of so much care and attention and never before has childhood been presented as the generation where indicators of exclusion and suffering accumulate exponentially” (Sarmento & Gouvea, 2008, p. 23); a large number of countries has been ratified the UNCRC, but there are countless challenges and cultural, economic and political contradictions, when it comes to implementing policies that fulfill the rights set out in it (Rosemberg & Mariano, 2010).
Furthermore, especially in developing countries, there is a strong influence of multilateral organizations and international organizations such as Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund), Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the World Bank and a Globally Structured Agenda for Education. These interventions did not contribute to improving child survival rates, for example, as they do not consider the differences between developed and developing countries, nor “the clear need to prioritise the realisation of rights in policy so that action can be divided into successive stages according to degree of severity of transgression and available resources” (Perbenton et. al. 2007). According to Author 3, they also contribute to reiterating social inequalities and promoting capitalism.
Considering this global scenario, the main goal was to analyze the impacts of the actions of multilateral organizations and international organizations and also the private sector actors on the drafting of laws and design of educational policies aimed at early childhood in Brazil, as well as their focus on neuroscience and economism.
A qualitative methodology was employed based on bibliographic research and documentary analysis. The theoretical framework on early childhood education and early childhood in the literature was reviewed; the documentary analysis considered Brazilian education and early childhood education laws and the documents from the legislative process of Bill 6998/2013. The analyses were carried out with the aim of respecting the EECERA Ethical Code for Early Childhood Researchers (Bertram et al., 2016) and to broaden the debate on early childhood education and the way in which society values babies and ​​young children.
The main results are: 1) the multilateral organizations and the private sector influence in the elaboration and enactment of recent documents in Brazil such as Marco Legal da Primeira Infância (Legal Framework for Early Childhood) (Law No. 13.257/2016) and Plano Nacional para a Primeira Infância (National Plan for Early Childhood). These private Foundations and Institutions are replacing the State's duties and responsibilities to respect the children’s rights; 2) debates about Early Childhood Education and care have been based on the overvaluation of the so-called “neuroscience evidence”, generalizing programs related to brain development as positive; 3) there is a strong appeal to the economic theories and to the emphasis on the child as the “becoming”. This economicist bias considers young children as a fruitful investment in human capital for a future performance in the labor market and financial return; 4) the perspectives presented above disregard the research knowledge about children and different childhoods in Brazil. Since 1980’s, Brazilian legislation and curriculum documents have guided teacher education to the conception of childhood as a social construction.
In conclusion, it is important that Early Childhood studies and policies do not focus solely on children's brain development or the financial return on their development. Babies and young children are historical beings, with rights and who also produce culture. Therefore, early childhood education and care must ensure pedagogical practices committed to playfulness, diversity and democracy, aiming for the integral development of the human being.

Authors

• Luciane Muniz Ribeiro Barbosa, University of Campinas

• Camila de Paula Xavier de Santana, UNICAMP

• Priscila Lopes de Godoy, UNICAMP