Saberes profesionales de docentes en educación preescolar que laboran con niñez menor de tres años de edad : un estudio en Costa Rica

This research approaches the universe of the teaching knowledge from the perspective of the professionals who work in Preschool Education in Costa Rica. Its object of study is the problem of the knowledge foundation which is the basis of their work during the care and education of children below three years of age. Consequently, the general objective of the investigation is focused on the identification, according to the very same preschool teachers, of the knowledge required for teaching practice, focusing on: (a) the acquisition sources of their teaching knowledge, (b) the perception that the teachers in Preschool Education deal with the student population from 0 to 3 years, as well as the other necessary knowledge areas to be able to act and (c) to examine how the teachers move that knowledge in the exercise of their profession. This qualitative research was done from a comprehensive approach with the intention to find data and attempt to build and rebuild its meaning. The research took place in Costa Rica. Twenty three female preschool teachers who met the required criteria such as having a university degree, work experience and practice in both the private and public education sectors participated.  The methodological instruments provided were a semi-structured interview and the Instructions to Sosia. All the participants answered after signing a free consent letter approved by the Ethics’ Committee of the University of Montreal.  Data underwent a process of analysis supported with QdaMiner software and next came the creation of an initial classification and data organization stages, the general reading of the interview results and the assignment of preliminary categories as well as the creation of templates for the final encoding. The results can be seen according to three axes:  (1) Knowledge Acquisition Sources, which contemplates those emanating from their personal life history, those from early and continuous education, and those provided by work experience with children less than 3 years of age;  (2) Necessary knowledge to be able to work with infants from 0 to 3 years of age, comprising various types of knowledge which include personal and professional life; the knowledge from study disciplines regarding infant development, knowledge about learning theories and several other education-related disciplines; pedagogical knowledge derived from experience, related to educational proposal design, teaching, methodology and the evaluation of infants;  work management suitable to the characteristics of the job description,  its routine and relations with the family; finally (3) Moving of knowledge in their pedagogical practice, focused on built and reformulated knowledge learned throughout the daily teaching practice. These three axes are comprised by subcategories and after their introduction and discussion, it was possible to notice that knowledge is acquired through the contact and relation available in the different interactional spaces of development with the others, such as professional development and the teaching practice. The highest value from all these sources of knowledge was granted to the professional practice and the teaching experience inside the classroom, which allows the teacher to reformulate, to modify and reshape perceptions of the teaching-learning process.  The participants registered a wide range of knowledge pointing towards a complexity of sources in their professional practice which transcends the vision of preschool teachers as “caretakers” and places them as professionals. This has a tremendous repercussion in the educational development of their pupils. In general, teachers´ knowledge is strongly linked with the job context and it is a constant subject to be tested, reflected upon and modified, due to the movement of knowledge in their pedagogical practice. In addition, it is possible to identify the failures, knowledge blanks, targets of criticism and needs that the participants mentioned as key aspects to reflect upon, the relationship between the early and the continuous educational background, just as with the curricular support material and the work conditions. In this way, it is concluded that the research satisfied the set objectives. In addition, it has contributed to the thinking of improvements in preschool teacher training, being a timely opportunity to insert the topic of knowledge as an area for discussion and reflection during the process of knowledge acquisition of the professional teaching practicum.

Keyphrases: Preschool Education, Children less than three years of age, Teaching Knowledge, Pedagogical Practice, Qualitative research