Family and School: A Struggle over Establishing Meaning (A Case Study of Girl Students of Public High Schools in Ilam)

According to theories of ideology, there is a unified and comprehensive ideology which determines all aspects of superstructure. On the contrary, theories of discourse hold the view that there are numerous discourses in the society none of which reject each other completely. One of the most important aspects of theories of ideology is that they assume middle institutions of the society satisfy the demands of the dominant group. Dynamics of relationships in middle levels is hidden in these theories. As proof of this statement, schools are the point of convergence for several contradictory discourses. In other words, the school and family discourses are considered to be conflicting. Hence, in this study special attention is paid to dynamics of the relationship between family and school as well as the tensions which might arise. This qualitative research was carried out among girl students of public high schools in Ilam and the data were collected through semi-structured interview and observation. Reviewing the related documents shows that family and school can be considered as discourses. In this survey, a general objective is pursued through analyzing the content of interviews, i.e., examining the relationship between these two discourses in establishing meaning in students’ social life. Results of the study indicated that the tension between the two discourses can be examined in three general categories, namely, religion/custom/politics, ethnic group/tribe/nation and membership/individualism. In addition, discursive struggle exists and it prevents absolute dominance of a single discourse. The degree of the independence of discourse from government discourse plays a prominent role. More specifically, school discourse is more dependent on government discourse, whereas family discourse is more independent.