The dissonance between secularism and religious speech in a public school kindergarten in the municipality of duque de caxias

The present work aims to analyze the presence of religious discourse in a public kindergarten school in the municipality of Duque de Caxias. A field survey was conducted for that purpose involving participant observation in a class of 5 year-old children. The religious discourses in the institution under investigation were found during exploratory study as part of the research entitled "Childhood, language and school: from books and reading policies to children literacy in Rio schools." By referring to secularism as a precondition of a democratic lawful state, the study raised the following questions: What religious discourses circulate in the institution? Who do they intend to reach? What are their purposes? Is the democratic principle of secularism being considered? What about religious freedom? In an attempt to answer these questions we carried out an ethnographically inspired qualitative research drawing on literature review of studies on language, public policies - especially those that discuss the presence of religion in public schools - , early childhood education, anthropology and  childhood sociology. In addition to field observations at a public kindergarten school in the Municipality of Duque de Caxias caring for children  2 to 5 years old, interviews and other discursive productions were conducted and recorded in order to identify religious discourses. The observations revealed the naturalization of the presence of religious speech in public schools in disregard of religious freedom, coupled with the absence of secularism in that public space acting as a promoter of a given religious faith over other beliefs.