ABSTRACT
This chapter is in response to Brazilian public policies in early childhood education and care (ECEC) to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. It presents an overview of how Brazilian public policies on early childhood education were managed by municipalities, states and federation during the COVID-19 pandemic and their consequences for education and childcare. It highlights the challenges and opportunities especially from the standpoint of theoretical advances about how we understand childhood and early childhood education and children’s rights in light of a pandemic. Developed from a qualitative research approach, it worked with documentary and non-documentary sources, qualitative and quantitative data. Data analysis of the material collated through documentary and non-documentary sources was supported by social studies on childhood. As a result, the chapter argues that children’s rights in Brazil during this time were located in a “battlefield of disputes” with the state.
