Gênero, família e relações étnico-raciais: um estudo sobre mulheres pardas e provedoras, e as relações que estabelecem com a educação de seus filhos e filhas

Abstract

The present study sought to understand the relationship set between families conducted by black provider women (black and brown), belonging to the popular class and the process of education of their children. It also seeks to understand and identify the strategies created by those women on their experiences with two socializing instances, namely: family and school. We are also interested in focusing the point of view of those subjects and to the manner they set, see and conduct the education of their children. On of the challenges of that study is expanding the field of analysis of the relationship family-school, setting up an interlocution with race and gender social relationships. The subjects of the research are low class families, represented by black women (black and brown), the mother of students enrolled on the first Cycle of Human Formation of the Municipal Education System of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and their children - black and white ranging from 7 to 8 years old. We chose a qualitative approach, carrying out a study with the women from the observations, informal talking, in-depth interviews and documental analysis. On the children's case, the observations and informal talking were also done from their cultural productions: play, games and drawing, central elements for comprehending the meanings the children assign to their experience at school and in family. The research was carried out in two stages: On the first stage, of exploratory nature, lasting four months, we selected the school, the mothers and the children. Thus, it was through the school that we came to the women and children selected. On the second stage, the fieldwork, lasting six months, three families were followed through several spaces of their daily lives, such as on the weekend activities, family parties, workplace, neighborhood, school and church events, etc. The women researched have a specific profile, they experience different social inequalities, therefore being necessary a theoretical-methodological effort to comprehend the dynamics and consequences of different axis of subordination lived by them. Understanding this scenario, combined with the specificities of focusing single women responsible for their families livelihoods, from an intersectional analysis perspective, involving the analytical categories of gender, race and class, was our challenge. The data gathered and analyzed allowed for concluding that the ways the investigated women construct their identities and collaborate on their children's education processes, from ethnical-racial and gender perspective are part of a complex scenario, that could not be translated other than by a moving image, i.e., sometimes those women inquire a negativity place, sometimes they reinforce stereotyped discourses and attitudes, and sometimes we can observe a rupture, an attempt to produce other images of themselves and of their children, constructing positive perspective of future for their boys and girls.