Pedagogical Role in Policies for Child Welfare: Thinking about the Teachers and Resisting “Primarization” of Early Childhood Education. Conversation with Graciela Fandiño

Abstract

This article narrates some of the main events during the teacher Graciela Fandiño Cubillos’ career in relation to early childhood education polices in Colombia. Through the narration of some contingencies and decisions that led her to immerse herself in that world, interwoven with her academic and research activity, she presents her experiences and interpretations about key issues of early childhood education. It allows to understand the identity of her ideas, concerns, introspections and struggles. This interview full of details and stories revolves around three axes. The first addresses her insistent and deep concerns for early childhood teachers: social and political ignorance of which they are recipient, unfair working conditions, the beginning of their professional lives and the need to provide them with guidance to strengthen their practices. The second axis refers to the struggle against what she calls the primarization or schooling of early childhood. The third axe displays principles, proposals and debates on the construction of guidelines, training and practice for early childhood teachers. The most of these elements derives from comments about the production of a base national document with guidelines for early childhood education, she shares frustrations and hopes about it.