CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AS A TEACHING RESOURCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SKILLS IN SCHOOL DAILY LIFE

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to identify the knowledge and adherence of elementary school teachers to the use of children's stories to expand social skills repertoire. Twelve teachers working in the 2nd and 3rd grades of different public schools in Rio de Janeiro participated in the investigation. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, qualitative, and quantitative study. The interview was structured with open and closed questions, divided into three sections: the first aimed to obtain socio-demographic data from the subjects researched; section two sought to investigate how teachers used children's literature books in the classroom and whether they recognized social skills in their students' interpersonal relationships; section three aimed to identify whether they used any additional material, such as puppets, among others, for storytelling. The interviews were conducted online using the Zoom platform. The information was analyzed in two stages: first, the answers to the closed questions were checked quantitatively, and then the open questions were investigated qualitatively using Bardin's (2011) content analysis method. It was found that the teachers recognized children's literature books as a favorable resource for their students' socio-emotional and cognitive development. However, they were not familiar with the theory of social skills, did not recognize these skills in everyday life, did not know how to develop them, and were limited in their ability to stimulate socially skilled behaviors in interpersonal relationships established at school.