LEARNING RHYTHMIZED BY CHILDREN: Drumming at Olho do Tempo Living School in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

ABSTRACT: This study analyses the relationships of childhood learning in the educational context of the Olho do Tempo Living School, a civil society organization of public interest located in a rural area of João Pessoa in the Brazilian state of Paraíba, where children engage in the practice of drumming as a pedagogical proposal. We weave together interdisciplinary theories on early childhood learning and learning through practice. From a patchwork based on participant observation of the children’s actions and perceptions, we address the following categories that both were felt and emerged in the fieldwork: participation, autonomy, development and growth in/with the body. We conclude that the actions understood by the children as “learning on one’s own” and “holding one’s own” are entangled with conflicting ties (re)born in intra- and intergenerational relations and in relations with things (mainly the instruments) in the environment. It is through these relations that the children deconstruct the adult-centric interpretation of the teaching-learning relationship.