What Makes Low and High Income Families Apportion Their Children's Education and Care to Early Childhood Education?

Why do families apportion their children’s education and care to Early Childhood Education? Are there motivational differences between low and high income families? Prompted by these questions, research was carried out on four families - being 2 low income families and 2 high income families, who enrolled their children in Early Childhood Education in Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil in 2013. Two interviews were held with parents addressing both family and Early Childhood Education topics. Using the concept of family arrangement (FONSECA, 2005) as a basis - which apart from the nuclear family, encompasses several other family structures and the idea that Early Childhood Education in Brazil is not only the parent’s right but the child’s, one can observe tendencies towards change in the standard of education for children aged 0 to 3. Previously exclusive to the family environment, the tendency now considers environments beyond the domestic parameters without considering the family a bearer of any social pathology (ROSEMBERG, 1995). The care and education process is neither natural nor exclusive to families. Given this scenario, it is possible to highlight some reasons for this change like alterations in peer relationships, modifications in the perception of children aged 0 to 3, universalisation of education in an institutional context - prior to mandatory formal education, co-responsabilisation of the State in care and education as well as socialisation processes beyond the family environment. This research discusses the reasons behind families apportioning their children’s education and care to Early Childhood Education and seeks to pinpoint explanatory categories for the changes in the standard of education and care of young children. The final intention is to identify motivational convergences and divergences between low and high income families.