Chapter 8: Education and Fatherhood in Argentina

Scholars have documented that Latin American countries have been, and still are, patriarchal societies (Jelin, 2005; Olavarría, 2003; Rivera & Ceciliano, 2004). Jelin (2005), for example, noted that the

In contemporary Argentina, different layers of context shape educational practices and fathers’ involvement in their child’s education. Historical normative frameworks, face-to-face daily interactions, organization of household chores, and present public policy are among the most important ones. These contexts need to be understood before any educational reform regarding father involvement in education can be implemented. Bogino Larrambebere’s (2011) concept of emergent social practices is useful to compare fathers’ new behavior with those that have been traditionally or historically accepted ways of doing things. This framework has been selected as a means to comment on recent change in the roles fathers seem willing to undertake.