Theatre for Children in Teacher Training

Abstract

This article discusses the place occupied (or not occupied) by theatre for children in teacher training curricula in Brazil. Macro data are presented in order to situate education in the country and teacher training. The inclusion of theatre in the National Common Core Curriculum and its presence in the early years of primary education and early childhood education are problematised. Next, the locus addressed is contextualised, namely the Education and Theatre course at the Faculty of Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Finally, the strategies and methodological proposals that include theatre for children as a subject to be explored within the discipline are described. The content, planning and teaching objectives put into action in the construction of this curriculum in theatre for children in pedagogy are explained. The theoretical articulations are woven together with authors from the field of theatre pedagogy, mainly recent works with a historical and critical bias on the relationship between education and theatre. The conclusions point to the need for the aesthetic training of teachers as spectators, so that they can qualify their pedagogical practices in the arts with children and the mediation between childhood and contemporary performing arts.