Cooperation between Parents of "demoralized sons" and educational institutions. A symbolic interactionist perspective

Abstract

The subject of the article is part of a study on the problem of the penitentiary crisis of families. The study of biographical experiences of mothers and fathers of prisoners allowed to trace the trajectory of parenthood in relation to crime and demoralization of the (adult)child. Parents reconstructed the stages of escalating difficulties, described their experiences of time in prison isolation, and most importantly, presented the process of "reaching" the moment of incarceration of their adult sons. One of the elements of these reconstructions is a specific (self)diagnosis made by the parents, concerning the sources of criminal behavior and the dynamics of the accumulation of educational problems resulting in imprisonment. Respondents revealed a variety of remedial strategies aimed at stopping their children's criminal careers. In this paper I focused on one selected area of these interactions, i.e. ways of creating and organizing cooperation between parents and educational institutions. In the main part of the study, I discussed three key directions of activities revealed by parents. The characteristics of these areas allow us to answer the question - what are the characteristics of the interaction between parents and teachers in the situation of the threat of demoralization of a teenager, and what preventive and remedial measures against problematic students are taken by schools from the perspective of parents? I have framed the presented observations within the theoretical and methodological framework of the Symbolic Interactionism perspective.