Concepção de creche em revistas brasileiras de pediatria: uma interpretação a partir da ideologia

Abstract

The research that supports this thesis shares objectives with a group of works being produced in the context of the Center of Gender, Race and Age Studies (Negri), of the Program of Postgraduate Studies in Social Psychology at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUCSP), aiming to contribute to the understanding of the social construction of Brazilian childhood. We take part in a research line that has been analyzing the speeches of different adult social actors about the baby, their education and care. In the case of this thesis, we focus on the treatment of the theme day care center in two Brazilian journals of Pediatrics: the Jornal de Pediatria and the Revista Paulista de Pediatria, published between 1988 and 2009. The theoretical framework was constituted by the integration of three fields of knowledge: the theory of ideology, gender theory and theoretical contributions related to the social studies of childhood. The methodology for the analysis of the symbolic production was the depth hermeneutics of John B. Thompson (1995), combined with the technique of content analysis. Despite the fact that all the articles at least mentioned the term day care center, not all refer to childhood education, the day care center being used only as a locus of research. The day care center was predominantly treated explicitly and implicitly, as a place of risk used to compensate for the absence of the mother, especially for low-income families. Such interpretation usually occurs associated with the perception of risk of diseases and conditions, mobilizing senses of gravity, alarm and negativity toward the day care center. It was noticed an absence of information about the children s reaction when invasive procedures were used. We conclude that the discourses produced and broadcasted by the Contemporary Pediatrics can be interpreted as supporting relations of gender and age domination