Experiences of a trans child in the context of early Childhood Education: right to recognition of identity and body

Abstract

This article analyzes the experience of the constitution of a trans child's identity through narratives that reveal the presence and significance of her body in early childhood education institutions. This study presents the partial results of a master's research project in the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, based on the following objectives: (1) to perceive how a trans child narrates and constitutes her gender and racial identity, (2) to understand, in processes of interactions, how she negotiates and interprets the social expectations of gender, masculine and feminine, pulsating in our culture and (3) to seize how the child signifies her infant body. The research was based on an ethnographic approach, and the results show how educational cultures differ and how the educational space is marked by transphobia about trans children, impacting interactions between them and their peers, as well as with adults. Given this, we propose a reflection on the challenge that educational institutions face in understanding and welcoming gender dissidence, promoting the rights of trans children, guaranteeing them a worthy existence, and reaffirming their citizenship as a non-negotiable human right.