THE WORLD OF AMAZONIAN CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDHOODS

Abstract

How are childhoods constituted in Roraima, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon? Which subjects cross their paths and help shape their lives? What is the world of life like for children in the Amazon? Complex questions generate equally complex possible answers, an exercise in moving within the movement of others, in this case children in the Amazon and their childhoods. The objective of this work was to understand Amazonian childhood based on three completed research projects: a study of non-indigenous Brazilian children in early childhood at a municipal school, specifically on the importance of parental involvement in school and how everyone benefits from this process; A study of multiethnic indigenous children and their understanding of school, indigenous childhood, and other school knowledge; and a third study of indigenous refugee and migrant children of Venezuelan ethnicity, which made it possible to see the learning processes they experience in a humanitarian shelter, as well as how childhood develops in a context of forced migration. The research with children is based on Oliveira (2011), Passeggi and Rocha (2012), and Gabriel (2016), aiming to understand children's understanding of their life worlds. The different studies—qualitative, field research, with narratives and ethnographies—allowed us to see Amazonian childhood as plural, diverse, multicultural, and not fixed in a space-time, but rather enabling many developments, worldviews, and possibilities.