School-family relations have recently become the focus of educational policy which established the participation of parents in the education of their children as decisive for learning and school success. This participation occurs above all by means of homework, a little studied and problematised cultural practice. This text explores the question of homework in recent history, research and educational policy in the USA and in Brazil. Considering homework as an educational, curricular and pedagogical policy/practice which structures the interactions and division of educational labour between school and family, it points to its implications for the family and mothers, emphasising questions of gender, equity and cultural plurality.
school-family relations; homework