Maternidades lésbicas e educação: “rabiscar” como produção de sentidos

Abstract

The subject of study of the present work is lesbian and bisexual motherhood and its associations in a school environment. This research stems from the social phenomenon of naturalizing motherhood and the assumption of universal heterosexuality for women, which can make lesbian or bisexual mothers contemplate this predetermined “place” in a heterosexist society. The need of understanding and analyzing said “place” justifies this doctorate, which intends to answer the following research matter: how are families of children that have lesbian or bisexual mothers being accommodated and represented by nursery and elementary schools? In order to answer this question, which consists of comprehending what manners of motherhood are derived from the presence of children from lesboparental families in schools, this qualitative study presents the following objectives: comprehending the importance of school education for families comprising lesbian or bisexual mothers of children in nursery school or initial grades of elementary school; analyzing whether the presence of lesbian or bisexual mothers contributes to socialization and to the reconstruction of democratic practices inside the school; investigating to what extent the presence of children, the sons and daughters of said families, changes the school setting and promotes possibilities of rethinking school-family relations. To collect the data, the thirteen participants were selected via snowball sampling and the research instrument was an itinerary of interviews, which were carried out in person with thirteen mothers during the second semester of 2018. The obtained narratives were analyzed based on the contributions from feminist theory and from studies of the relationships between gender and education. As a result of the research, a conclusion is drawn that it is possible to identify some isolated advancements in the connection between the school and the lesboparental family. However, there is much to be done for education to be based on (and made for) democracy, that is, to guarantee rights and representation as well as securing a school free of discrimination and violence for mothers that associate motherhood with lesbianism or bisexuality, for their lesboparental families, and for all children who are part of plural family configurations.