Following a magnifying glass during a science class for children education

Abstract

In this study we follow a group of five-years-old children and their teacher while they use a magnifying glass, for the first time, in order to investigate some materials collected from the garden. This task was part of a science curriculum topic designed collectively by the children and their teacher. We draw on the Actor-network Theory (Latour, 1993; 2005) to analyze actants’ movements building a network that allowed very young children to expand their way of seeing and sensing the world. Data was collected in Early Childhood Education Public School in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The analyses were focused in follow the magnifying glass in order to comprehend how it could make a sociomaterial network that allowed learning. Our study permitted us to demonstrate: (a) how children engaged in the task; (b) the new way in which the children could see the world; (c) how the children redefined their identities; (d) the new elements that changed the patterns in the educational praxis in the Early Childhood Education school. Also, we could observe that the Actor-network Theory is a powerful tool to analyze the events in Early Childhood Education.