Shared teaching in preschool settings: understandings, potentialities and challenges

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the understandings, the potentialities and the challenges of shared teaching as described by the teachers of a childcare center located in the Midwest region of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Its empirical basis is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews with teachers that work together in the nursery and preschool settings, as well as participant observation and field diary records. Content analysis technique (Bardin, 2016) was chosen for data analysis and organization. The findings revealed that understandings of shared teaching vary significantly across different contexts of nursery and preschool settings. The research also highlights that shared teaching not only constitutes a specificity within early childhood education but also ensures the preservation of other specificities. On the other hand, for the practice of shared teaching to be established, it is necessary to guarantee adequate structural conditions, such as space and time, that enable the construction of pedagogical documentation altogether, as well as public policies that enable the conditions of shared work. In addition, training structures that expand the processes of studies and reflection on this specificity of teaching may also be necessary.