THE CONSTITUTION OF A TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: FOLLOWING A LITTERACY PROJECT

Abstract

This research project took place in a Public School of the City of São Paulo, placed in a low income neighbourhood, and its objetctive was to investigate the construction of a learning and teaching environment during a litteracy project for fourth graders. The study followed a phenomenological approach, in which the center of the process of learning and teaching consists in the search for meaning, and it is considered a complex phenomenon situated inside the world, in time, in space and involving interpersonal exchanges. The whole context of the school, the families, the protagonists, their actions and interactions during the project were considered as a learning and teaching environment, with its center in the classroom. The research was a case study including participant observation in classrooms and parents meeting and 14 reflexive encounters with parents and teachers. The learnig and teaching environment showed an articulation among intra and extra school contexts. Teachers credited the success of the litteracy project to a continuous support that they received, and, as a result, new pedagogical practices were developped as well as a deeper understandig of the phenomenon os litteray was achieved. New exchange ativities qith parents were created, so that they could participate and give support to the school during the litteracy project. Fifteen out of eighteen children learned to read and write, and their colleagues participated of the processes with a fellowship atittude.