Hiring early childhood education professionals: what do the notices from municipalities in Paraná reveal?

Abstract

This article aims to problematize the relationship between training and the requirements for hiring early childhood education professionals, considering the professional profile, the workload of the contract, the salary and the duties. It stems from an inter-institutional research project entitled “Level of training and hiring of professionals for early childhood education in the state of Paraná: strategies adopted and implications for teaching”, which identified and analyzed the training requirement for hiring professionals working in early childhood education in four municipalities in two regions of the state of Paraná, via public examination notices. It is justified by its impact on the expansion of academic studies and social actions aimed at early childhood education in Paraná. Methodologically, we carried out a documentary analysis of the public notices published between 2009 and 2019, accessed via the city halls' official websites. We found that, although the requirement for training to work in early childhood education is a higher degree in Pedagogy, many municipal administrations issued public tender notices that approved positions under different nomenclatures, without the requirement of higher education pedagogical training or, at the very least, the normal modality at high school level, with longer working hours and lower salaries. From this, we conclude that the municipalities investigated have employed strategies to make teaching more precarious, which jeopardizes quality education for all children.