Tilblivelser af skolefædre

– En etnografisk undersøgelse af migrantfædres erfaringer med og navigation af skole-hjem-samarbejde

Abstract

This article is a translated and edited version of the defense speech for my PhD defense: “Becomings of School Fathers – An Ethnographic Exploration of Migrant Fathers’ Experiences and Navigation of Practices for Home School Collaboration.” The defense took place on Monday, October 7, 2019 at Aarhus Univer- sity (DPU).

The article investigates migrant fathers’ positions in home-school cooperation practices, including fathers’ positions in relation to mothers more broadly, and how migrant fathers experience meetings with school-professionals. The article argue that the intensifying home-school cooperation affects dif- ferent types of families differently, and that this intensification can work to exclude some parents. Thus, the article is questioning if more school-home collaboration is creating more equality within school, as often assumed. The article analyzes how migrant fathers are of- ten meet with low expectations from teachers and educators, with the result that they more seldomly get involved in, and asked for advices regarding, their childrens’ upbringing and schooling. The article also analyzes migrant fathers’ experiences of various shades of mistrusts in meetings with teachers and educators. The article suggests the concept of “mistrusted masculinity”, to denote negative expectations of the (Muslim) migrant father – a negative controlling image – of these fathers being controlling patriarchs and someone to suppress their wife and children’s freedom. The article illustrates how the interlocutors had to navigate according to this negative controlling image, in their navigation towards being good fathers for their children and achieve the surrounding worlds recognition hereof.