SCHOOL CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: RELATIONSHIPS IN FOCUS

Abstract

Mothers are expected to work and to be responsible for the care of their children. This conflict betweenthe work and the child makes the families nowadays rely on nurseries. The low-income families even usethe services provided by the nurseries due to the fact that they usually cannot afford paying for all thattheir babies need. The public centers serve food and hygiene products at no cost to families. The relationbetween family and nurseries, and the scientific productions on this topic will be the focus of this article,which aims at presenting the research that is devoted to this subject in the period between 2004 and 2009,published in the databases of the Banco de Teses CAPES , SciELO, Altavista, Lilacs and on paperspresented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research inEducation (ANPED) and published on the respective homepage in the period. The instruments used tocollect data were limited to semi-structured interview and case study. It was found less frequently otherinstruments, such as video, document analysis and questionnaire with open questions. It is observed thatall the studies approach the family relationship as essential to the development of both the school and thefamilies, but especially that of the children. One point becomes critical to the analysis and reflection asregards the relation between family and nursery: What does the nursery communicate to parents? How doparents see the nursery in their area of education? What do they really know about the institution? Whatdo they know about their kids’ activities there? And how do they get to know that?