(Im)Possible maternities in relation to early childhood education: an exploratory analysis of academic research on families and daycare

Abstract

This article analyzes, in an exploratory manner, the academic production on the relationship between families and Early Childhood Education, based on a previous mapping of papers from GT07 of ANPEd, in which we found that, although the articles focused on the relations between families and Early Childhood Education, most research participants and interlocutors were mothers. Thus, the analysis explored who appears as research participants, how they appear, and which conceptions of daycare and early childhood education emerge from this relationship. The results indicate the recurrence of mothers and other women as the main interlocutors, who are responsible for enrollment, communication with the institution, and monitoring the children, as well as daycare as a viable space given the need for female labor, while considering that children learn and develop in this environment. Therefore, the academic production on the family–Early Childhood Education relationship provides evidence that this relationship is empirically maternalized, discursively universalized, and politically crossed by processes of female accountability for care, socially situated in gender, class, and race relations.