Playing in elementary education: beyond (neo) productivism and salvationism

Abstract

This article starts from the problem underlying the association of playing with the salvationism of education problems, regarding, for example, improving student performance or increasing their interest in school, reducing the resolution to a question of method. The study seeks to understand, in this sense, the place of playing in contemporary pedagogical conceptions, presenting its encounters and disagreements with a historical-social conception of playfulness. In a qualitative approach, it uses bibliographic and documentary research, in the latter case, based on the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), while in the former, in dialogue with authors who discuss contemporary pedagogical concepts. The conclusion points out that, in the context of neoproductivism, playing acquires a pragmatist and utilitarian meaning, expressed in the BNCC, from a perspective of masking, opposed to the historical-social conception, which aims to play for unveiling and historical consciousness of social relations, from a perspective of totality.