Infância contemporânea: análises sobre a relação entre cultura digital, cultura lúdica infantil e conhecimento docente

Abstract

When observing the contemporary social and cultural situation, we notice the massive presence of tools that provide digital technologies in the daily lives of people of different age groups. From this, the playful culture for children in contemporary times can be reconfigured when compared to the playful experiences in the childhood period of other human generations, which encourages the emergence of new perceptions and interpretations about playing in childhood. Given the context, the need to discuss the role of teachers as mediating agents of educational processes that interact directly with social phenomena influenced by digital culture and the ludic culture is evident. This research is developed with the search for fundamentals and the exploration of data that promote answers to the following research problem: how digital culture influences the production and reproduction of children's playful culture in contemporary times and how teachers understand and relate to the Children's ludic manifestations in pedagogical practices? In order to pursue elements that contribute to data collection to elucidate the proposed problem, the research aims, in general, to know the influence of digital culture on children's playful activities to understand the processes of constitution of contemporary children's playful culture and identify the teaching interpretations in their relationships with children's experiences and pedagogical practices. An exploratory research process and an inductive method were developed in the processes of planning, collecting and analyzing the results. Data collection instruments were used through a questionnaire for children and interviews with teachers. Data were analyzed using content analysis techniques. The development of the research took place in a school unit of Elementary Education I of the municipal public teaching network of a city in the northwest of the state of São Paulo. Of the total of 575 students enrolled between the morning and afternoon periods, the responses to the questionnaire were recorded by 427 children, with the help of their parents/guardians. Of the total of 31 teachers at the school, 26 contributed to the research through interviews. From the collected data, it was revealed that how the ludic experiences are related to different supports and with the environment that the child accesses and is produced by the individuals who participate in it and their direct or indirect contact, the manipulation of the toy, the interactions with the different actors and supports of the game, there is a favorable field of conversion of media supports to playful experiences in contemporary times. It was found that the infrastructure of digital media has greatly influenced the playful culture of the investigated children. The lack of conceptual clarity about cultural studies, more specifically about digital culture and ludic culture, can lead to the planning and application of precariously grounded pedagogical practices. In addition to technical knowledge about technologies for their effective use – something demanded by contemporary times and which should be part of what the school teaches – pedagogical practices seem to disregard the relevant cultural bases that serve the child's education. Thus, critically reflecting on playful experiences permeated (or not) by digital media is far from the thinking of some teachers. It is concluded that recognizing, understanding and taking a pedagogical position on children's playful culture influenced by digital media, is presented as an indispensable professional practice for contemporary teaching.