Family education and parenting support: public policies, systems and practices on Reunion Island

Abstract

The question of the relationships maintained by the various actors in education, including teachers with the parents of the children in their care, remains a complex question which does not avoid controversies between the sometimes well-defined positions of some and others, in particular when the issue of the link arises. In the context of Reunionese society, what about considering the cultural dimension of the roles and functions of parents in the context of professional educational practices? What about the difficulties of the parent-education professional relationship in the implementation of a real co-educational approach? To open some avenues of epistemological reflections in connection with these questions, this article presents several summaries of our research results carried out on parenting support systems implemented in Reunion. It will be a question of better understanding the intercultural approach between educational bodies: family-school, regarding public policies in the socio-historical context of the needs of the population of Reunion Island.