Prof Carol VincentInstitute of Education, London

University

• In this presentation, I draw on recent research projects in order to consider the roles of gender, class and race in determining how parents choose and interact with education and care settings.

• Intensive Mothering Expectations• The research projects

» Class, choice and childcare» Class and parental voice» Race and parental choice and voice

• What does parents’ involvement with education and care settings tell us about social trust?

• What are the policy implications of my argument?

• I’m the mum, I don’t leave her. Anyway she’s at the clingy stage, first it was me actually [feeling ‘clingy’] and then it started to rub off on her… I am going to try and leave her with [friend from group], but when I leave her, I keep checking on her. [I have left her in the Sure Start] crèche about two or three times which was OK, but I kept checking on her to make sure there wasn’t anything going on that I didn’t want. Like people leaving her with small things about that she might pick up, or giving her food when I don’t want her to be fed, or when she’s standing because they might think she’s OK and then she might fall. Just feeling protective(Katie, young white, at home, lone mother, participant in working class choice project)

• ‘The methods of appropriate child rearing are construed as child-centred, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labour intensive, and financially expensive’ (Hays 1996, p. 8). Intensive mothering is an ideology in which mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture and development of the child.

• Johnston & Swanson (2006) ‘Intensive Mothering Expectations’ (IME).

• Putting the child first, labouring to ensure his/her well being is an imperatives for all mothers ‘in order to claim a moral self’ (May 2008 p.481)

• The ‘childcare’ projects: Two consecutive projects on childcare choice in same two areas of London. The first project (2001-4) involved 59 families, and focused on middle class parents’ experiences of the childcare market. The second project (2005-7) explored the engagement of working class families with childcare, and involved 70 families.

• The ‘voice’ project (1997-1999): Involved secondary schools in London and the West Midlands. Project focused on the ways in which parents engaged with the schools

• The ‘Black Middle Classes’ (BMC) project (2009-2011) explores the educational strategies of the BMC in relation to their children. Involves 60+ professional/managerial parents.

• Problems with dichotomy of working class / middle class

• Working class parents reluctant to trust ‘stranger’ child-minders. Chose safety and regulation of nursery environment.

• Middle class parents more likely to choose home environment (for under 3s) – their own or others. Some use of unregulated child-minders; these mothers relying on their own resources of cultural and social capital to determine the ‘right’ carer.

When I got the list of childminders and looking through it, I’m thinking, you know, because I didn’t know if I could trust them, I didn’t know if…You know I was frightened for him to go to somebody and you know, you hear all the stories about shaking babies and things like that […] There was one [on the list] she was a friend of a friend that I work with and I knew of her…but she didn’t have any places…So that’s when I had to consider people I didn’t know (Claire, black lone mother, participant in working class project)

I put an ad out in Church Street. I just put an ad up [laughing]. I just leafleted kind of round the local area. […] I just thought I’d see if anything came my way and it was an incredible response. Really, really quick response. […] We got about 12 people really quickly ringing up, of whom I’d say 7 or 8 were completely barking. […] And then [carer] was the first one I actually met and I just really liked her, and really trusted her instinctively and then I phoned up the people she was working for, she was already working for someone else, looking after 2 boys. [….] She was a student, she wanted cash. It’s all been done on trust and it has worked. (Anna, white, with partner, participant on the middle class childcare project).

• High, intermediate and low levels of parental intervention with school.

• High cohort: displays managed trust. These parents are risk managers (education can’t be left to school)

• Intermediate cohort: displays partial trust. These parents are risk balancing

• Low cohort: displays either trust given or trust forced. These parents are risk allowing.

• Using generic middle class resources?

• ‘I went to go and see the head teacher you know and I thought I need to do it. I know some parents won’t be so, what’s the word, they might think, OK, it’s not my place to do that, or wouldn’t be confident in doing that. But because of the work I do, I know the difference it can make for me to address those issues as soon as possible. I didn’t have any qualms about going to these teachers to address my concerns and so forth [….] I have to make it my job to sort of go through his work and make sure he is doing it well and make sure he is getting credit for doing it well, and if he is not doing it well, what can I do to support that, and how can I work with the teachers’ to make him do better? So I think it’s just my mum’s duty really’ (Mary-Ann, senior local government worker, state schools)

• Their position in relation to schools complicated by experience of racial inequalities and discrimination.

• ‘The deputy came and picked up on [the term] institutional racism saying that, erm, they’re not…So she went into this stuff about …diversity and different things that they do to celebrate diversity and what have you, and you want to shake her and say, “It’s got nothing to do with the food!”’ (Abby, BMC project, education professional and chair of governors, state schools)

• Putnam’s ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ trust• Trust in institutions and in unknown others is affected by

social class. • Li, Savage and Pickles’ (2003, 2005) argue that ‘the more

advantaged one’s socio-cultural position is, the more likely one tends to trust others’ (2005 p.119) (also Letki 2008).

• However, in context of increasing individualism and consumerism, middle class parents especially, are less likely to show trust in educational institutions. They deploy resources of economic, social and cultural capital in order to intervene in their children’s schooling. Race adds significant and complicating factor to the deployment of these class resources (Archer).

• How can we increase trust between parents of all social classes and the providers of care and education?

• One theme throughout these research projects is the lack of sustained and meaningful dialogue between those who educate and care for children and the parents of those children.

• How to develop dialogue? Changing mindsets. The importance of training (Green Paper 2010 ‘Support for All: families and relationships’)

• Move from viewing parents as consumers to seeing them as citizens.

• Considerable difficulties around the injecting of lay voices into professional arenas (e.g. the apparent ‘threat’ to professionals, and the complex interaction of class, gender and ethnicity shaping modes of participation, activity, and inactivity).

• However, building dialogue between professionals and parents is, potentially, a key way to address inequalities in parental resources.