Fam�lia e escola: demandas familiares e a��es pedag�gicas

							 Demands coming from
 the family diversity: the
perspective of Elementary
    School Teachers

           Lisiane Saraiva, Doctoral Student
                      lisianesaraiva@hotmail.com
         Patrícia Scheeren, Doctoral Student
                          pscheeren@gmail.com
              PhD Adriana Wagner (Adviser)
                adrianawagner.ufrgs@hotmail.com
   Family-school relationship
  Family-school: fundamental institutions to develop the evolutionary processes of human beings.
                     Family: responsible for the child socialization and to insert the child in a cultural
                     world by teaching the mother tongue, the symbols and rules of group living.
                School: responsible for the cultural organized knowledge acquisition in its
                distinguished areas, with the purpose to form critical citizens, agents of changes.
                                                                       (Polonia & Dessen, 2005)


                        Interaction difficulties between these two systems = conflicts

                                                       Parents involvement is considered a great
  Nowadays: scientific
                                                     health predictor: enhances the apprenticeship
  studies about parents
                                                       process and the academic results, prevents
    involvement in the                as
                                                      behavioral problems, absences, school drop
   school environment
                                                      out and encourages the children to keep on
  increase significantly
                                                                        studying
(Vyverman & Vettenburg, 2009)                     (Cavalcante, 1998; Bhering & Siraj-Blatchford, 1999; Xu, 2002)

Although a great part of the literatuate indicates the benefits of family-school relationship and
enphazise that poor contact between these two institutions become harmful for children, it seems that
there are many obstacles in order to elapse effectively.

                                                                     (Sanders, Epstein & Connors-Tadros, 1999)
OBJECTIVES
 Comprehend the family demands that comes to school, in the view of Elementary School
  Teachers
  Investigate the actions taken by them to accomplish the family demands they get




METHODOLOGY
 Focus Group




SAMPLE
 Ten Elementary School teachers from Porto Alegre, Brazil
 From public and private schools
 Age: ranged between 26 and 53 years old
 All of them graduated
 Professional experience: ranged from 4 to 24 years
                                       Results
Demands
      Limits: most frequent demand. May be positive (when families accept limits given by
       school) or negative (when families oppose the school attempts to give limits to their
      children). Some private schools accept conditions imposed by parents, treating them as
                                           customers.

  Organizing Extra-School routine: parents assign to teachers responsabilities of helping their
  kids in home tasks, such as organizing homework schedule, or encouraging them to go to bed
                                            earlier.


  Perpetuation of Dependence vs Autonomy: Parents ask the teachers to support their children
  in basic needs, perpetuating dependency (for example, tying their shoes) and not encouraging
                                        their autonomy.


   Counseling: Parents request teachers to help and advise them about the best way to deal with
   their kids in terms of communication, relationship, etc. Teachers mention that some families
            agree and take advantages from their advices, however others feel invaded.


 Inclusion: parents use reports and medical diagnosis to claim for special treatment for their kids,
                      overestimating the so called “special need condition”.
                                      Results




ACTION TYPES
Monitoring: teachers, individually or supported by school, contact students families to report
students’ status, such as not accomplished homework, lack of school material, absences, etc.

Projects developed to encourage parent involvement at school: cultural activities, school fairs,
mother’s/father’s days, among others.
Conclusions
   Many demands go beyond the limits of school and teachers – they are extra-school
   demands
   When teachers are supported by institution, they feel more confident to deal with the
   families and their demands, however they still take actions by themselves, without
   school support
   Parent involvement at school increases their own and the kids’ self-esteem, as
   unknown partnerships might occur.
   The compromise of a productive relationship between school and family, which
   includes benefits for both parts (family cohesion, school accuracy and student success)
   becomes uncertain when the family-school communication is not effective.


References
       Bhering, E. & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (1999). A relação Escola-Pais: um modelo de trocas e colaboração.
Cadernos de Pesquisa, (106), 191-216.
       Cavalcante, R. S. C. (1998). Colaboração entre pais e escola: educação abrangente. Psicologia Escolar e
Educacional, 2(2), 153-160.
       Polonia, A. da C. & Dessen, M. A. (2005). Em busca de uma compreensão das Relações entre Família e
Escola. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 9(2), 303-312.
       Sanders, M.G., Epstein, J. L. & Connors-Tadros, L. (1999). Family Partnerships with High Schools: The
parents’ perspective. Report Nº 32. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
       Vyverman, V. & Vettenburg, N. (2009). Parent Participation at School: a research study on the perspectives
of children. Childhood, 16(1), 105-123.