Pedagogic discourse and academic failure

• Autor(a) principal: Damiani, Magda Floriana
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Título da fonte: Ensaio (Rio de Janeiro. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.cesgranrio.org.br/index.php/ensaio/article/view/587
• topic: Fracaso escolar; Factores extraescolares; Factores intraescolares; Discurso pedagogico; Cultura escolar; School failure; Extra-school factors; Intra-school factors; Pedagogic discourse; School culture; Fracasso escolar; Fatores extra-escolares; Fatores intra-escolares; Discurso pedagogico; Cultura escolar

This paper presents the findings of an investigation which, in its first part, identified risk factors for school failure (understood as grade retention and/or drop-out) in a cohort of all children born in the city Pelotas (RS) hospitals, in 1982. This was accomplished through a multivariate model which examined the risk for failure associated to children's personal and family variables. The results confirm findings from other research, suggesting the important influence exerted by factors such as ethnic group, family income, number of siblings, parents' level of schooling, type of dwelling, among others, over children's academic attainment. The second part of the investigation reports case studies of two schools (attended by populations that presented the same risk factors) with contrasting rates of repetition and dropout among their students (high in one and low in the other). The results indicate that the institutions differ among themselves and point out to the importance of intra-school factors, especially schools' pedagogic discourse (concept defined by Bernstein) for children's attainment. The emphasis on the academic aspect of schooling (instructional discourse), observed in the school that presented lower failure rates, enabled an effect modification over the important correlation (encountered in other research) between children's failure and parents' low level of schooling. The school which presented the highest rates of failure was characterized by a regulative discourse.