Educational public policies: remarks from a family-student study in the municipalities of Ribeirão Preto and Sorocaba in São Paulo state

Author(s)

Éwerton Cabral do Nascimento

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2010-10-21

Examining board members

Claudia Souza Passador; Romualdo Luiz Portela de Oliveira; Jose Marcelino de Rezende Pinto

• Advisor: Claudia Souza Passador

Abstract

World societies face several changes with implications for the areas of public education, administration and policies. Despite advances, the performance of the Brazilian educational system is still unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is important to mention the governments initiative to make available educational data so that scientific investigations can be lead ahead. The aim of this paper is to identify hints for educational public policies from students, and their parents / guardians from schools with different levels of Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) in the municipalities of Ribeirão Preto and Sorocaba, São Paulo state, taking the habitus theory as a base theory, according to Pierre Bourdieus approach. Analyzed dimensions are: Parents / guardians school life students participation, Parents / guardians school reality knowledge, Students dedication to school activities, Family atmosphere; Studying stimulus contact, Parents school admiration School encouragement to parents / guardians involvement\', and \'Belief in school and education\'. It has been developed an applied, quantitative, descriptive and survey research, following a comparative approach. It have been applied 208 questionnaires to students and parents/ guardians chosen by random sampling coming from nine schools chosen according to the Ideb average from the years of 2005 and 2007. The research was divided into three parts: theoretical reference, data collection instrument development, and empirical work. Research hypotheses were tested using the Mann-Whitney nonparametric statistical technique. It has been used the SPSS software, version 17. Results point on similar conclusions to other papers related to demographic characteristics and educational performance. But those analyses beyond demographics found out differences between high and low school Ideb related to belief in education and school; admiration to school managers and staff; and contact to studying stimulus situations. It is suggested a school, educational, managerial and staff parental feeling creation or (re)signification as a trace to be fallowed by school-family policies so that it is possible to overcome the comprehension of parental participation as homework help and parent-teacher conference. (AU)