Entre o lar e a escola: o exercício do “ofício” de pai/mãe de aluno nas camadas populares

Abstract

Recent changes in family and school have deepened the interactions between these two socializing instances and significantly expanded the roles they are called upon to play in the education of children. In this context, parents begin to play a new social role, that of student's parent. This role has very vague contours in Brazilian law and may take different forms and interpretations depending on the context and those involved. In order to discuss the role of student’s parent in the working-class and its implications on school and family daily life, we sought to understand: (1) what the school wants from families; (2) what devices do educators use to get what they want from their parents; (3) how working-class parents perceive and perform this role; (4) which socioeconomic and cultural factors influence the exercise of this role; and (5) what are its effects on family daily life. For this, a qualitative research was carried out with twelve families of a public elementary school, located in the low-income outskirts of Belo Horizonte. Data were collected from document analysis and direct observation of daily school life, home visits and in-depth interviews with parents and students. It has been observed that the role of student's parent consists more than taking on certain tasks, such as following homework and attending teachers calls, handing a child in conditions of educability to the school. These conditions may vary between schools, but autonomy, conceived as mental and bodily discipline, seems to be a required disposition in all of them because it is the basis of school form. In this sense, the teachers of the researched school had already been partially adjusted, respectively, their expectations to the public served, so that they did not nourish the expectation that parents, with low level of education, would act in the school learning plan of their children, for example, helping with homework. What were asked of them were, above all, actions in terms of motivation and discipline, and these requests were, therefore, outside the pedagogical work and cognitive activities of the child. However, what the school is asking of all parents, some cannot offer, as it would require structural changes in different dimensions of family life, such as how to relate to time and to exercise authority, which depend more than act of will, being conditioned by the family's past and present experiences and conditions of existence.