CRITICAL VIEWS OF CHILDRENS´ LITERATURE IN TEACHERS EDUCATION

Abstract

This article discusses production made by teachers in a teacher education course that aimed to analyze Emile Durkheim’s work and, later, the analogy with the children’s book ‘Pinocchio’. In this way, we tried to understand how children’s stories contain concepts and representations of society. After the discussion of
Durkheim´s ‘Education and Sociology’ the students presented in groups an analysis of the work of children’s’ stories; they analyzed and also presented to other students the result of their findings. Then they handed in their written results. Among the relevant findings highlighted by them are the roles of children’s education, the adult as a moralistic person, punishment as a result of disobedience, and the role of the State and teacher. Finally, it is concluded that this experience helped teachers to
understand that the classical theoretical authors allows a reflection about a work developed in a certain time and in a certain context. This theoretical reflection can also bring contributions for the present time and, on this specific case, the choice of children’s literature is essential for the construction of citizenship and the civil rights that children, already have and they struggle to conquer.