Pandemics and childhood: a look at young childhood in health crises (1918-2020) from the perspective of material culture

Abstract

This article discusses how hygienist relationships and conceptions of health and assistance - foundations of day care as an institution for childcare - return in the scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic and are instituted in documents and in the material culture that permeates early childhood education. To this end, measures and protocols for coping with the Spanish flu are analyzed, within an institution for young children in the city of São Paulo (1918), and the care provided at Child Education Centers in the city of Campinas-SP during the pandemic of Covid-19, in the year 2021. When examining the established health guidelines and practices, it is understood that the school culture changes, composing a new materiality that advocates health and hygiene, to the detriment of actions and pedagogical principles of early childhood education.

Keywords:
history of education; material school culture; child education; pandemic