ABSTRACT
This article presents the Departamento Estudos da Infância (Dedi) - Department of Childhood Study – of the School of Education (EDU) of Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Uerj), only in Brazil specifically in the field of childhood, and it problematizes the spaces of childhood in this institution. What are the childhood concepts used when a university creates and keeps a department with this specificity? What policies, beyond the classic tripod teaching-research-outreach, are drawn when the theme childhood becomes present in a public university? What dialogues does this institutional place organize with policies of education, culture, epistemologies, and recognition of children’s rights? The text tries to unveil and reconstruct the institutional transformations that created this department that treats the childhood and children, dialoguing with the curricular reforms since the last decade and the transformations of the childhood theme in the different fields of culture, science, education, and public policies.
KEYWORDS
Childhood; university; Department of Childhood Study; public policy