Social class, school and family: thinking about the relevance of Annette Lareau’s unequal childhoods

Abstract

This essay draws on the work Unequal Childhoods: Class, race and family life by Annette Lareau to reflect on the current relevance of the concept of social class and its relationship with school and family. From a broad perspective, the author, on the basis of an ethnographic study in a natural context, develops the concepts of cultivated growth and natural growth, relating them to social class and highlighting the effects of each one on the relationship between family and school. On this basis, it is understood that, despite the changes in social and family life brought about by contemporaneity, the role and weight of social class in the unfolding of family, school and social life is a catalyst of the social differences currently observed in the world.