Between the eyes of some and the mirror for the eyes of others: Writing-Childhoods as lament, song, and production of life

Abstract

The effects of colonization in Brazil permeate multiple dimensions of social life, shaping modes of sociability and imposing ways of being and existing grounded in Euro-Christian-monotheistic thought, while simultaneously legitimizing forms of scientific knowledge aligned with these same principles. In this context, Childhood Studies and Early Childhood Education still lack research that critically challenges universal and universalizing perspectives underpinning curricula, public policies, and pedagogical practices designed for children from infancy onward—particularly studies that interrogate the impacts of colonization on the lives of Black, Indigenous, marginalized, Afro-Brazilian religious, rural, quilombola, samba, and disabled children. This essay seeks to introduce the concept of “Writing-Childhoods” (Escrevinfâncias) as a political device that renders visible the productions of life emerging from the experiences of Black children situated within Early Childhood Education contexts. The text is grounded in the lived experiences of two Black female teacher-researchers who, drawing on the notion of “Writing-Experiences” (Escrevivências), coined by the Black intellectual Conceição Evaristo, and on counter-colonial thought proposed by the quilombola intellectual Antônio Bispo dos Santos, articulate alternative narrative possibilities for rethinking education in the first stage of Basic Education. By mobilizing Writing-Childhoods, this work aims to confront the ethnocidal project that continues to shape early childhood education contexts, affirming this concept as a means of legitimizing children’s enduring capacity for resistance, creation, and invention from infancy—especially among Black, Indigenous, marginalized, rural, quilombola, and disabled children.