The education comes from home: family and school on the outskirts of São Paulo

Author(s)

Nicolau Dela Bandera Arco Netto

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2017-02-15

Examining board members

Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques; Karina Biondi; John Cunha Comerford; Alexandre Barbosa Pereira; Julio Assis Simoes

• Advisor: Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques

Abstract

This thesis describes the concepts and local practices of education, upbringing children and production of knowledge among residents and teachers/students in a school in Recanto dos Humildes, a neighborhood on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil. From an ethnography of the neighborhood and of a municipal school, this survey describes and compares the socialization of residents and their children with the situation within the school itself, demonstrating different and similar practices related to knowledge and education. The intention was to explore the theory of education created by the residents of Recanto with regard to the raising of their children, which emphasizes conversation and spoken discourse in the formation of family relationships. Using scoldings as well as narratives, the mothers mostram o mundo [show the world] to their children, teaching them to distinguir o certo do errado [tell right from wrong]. In school, it was also seen that language has a central role in banter among the students as well as in the interaction between the pupils and their teachers. In describing the wordplay and slang games employed by students in the production of zoeira [poking fun], it is possible to analyze the variations of Portuguese language which the students pursue in trying to catch a brecha [an opportunity in the conversation to launch a joke or a comeback], narrar uma fita [to describe something that happened], or zoar [poke fun at] their classmates and friends. This thesis contributes to this field of study by demonstrating how the spoken word produces social relations and persons in circles of influence which involve family and friends. Family and school are described as a generative opposition which defines itself in opposition to the other through similarity and through difference. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/07348-0 - The myth of dysfunctional family and the relationship between families of working class and the school: a anthropological reflection
• Grantee: Nicolau Dela Bandera Arco Netto
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate