Construction of Mathematics Curriculum: How Teachers of Early Years Understand What Should be Taught?

This article presents the results of an investigation that sought to understand the relationship of the teacher of the early years to the knowledge to be taught, taking as a basis the Curricular Parameters for Basic Education in the State of Pernambuco, which describes its learning expectations. For the research, a questionnaire was applied to 112 teachers of the early years of public schools in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. We asked that they indicate the school year in which that expectation should be addressed. The results show that expectations are most suitable for the content present in textbooks in this stage of schooling. It also revealed that teachers feel freer to express an opinion on expectations that involve simpler skills. The more complex skills are the ones that receive fewer indications on the part of the teachers. We concluded that these skills are possibly little understood by teachers of the early years.