This paper is a qualitative consideration of how working-class mothers manage money, daily life, their children's education and, in the process, internalise a particularistic economic position. It is uncommon that educational sociology incorporates a critical engagement of the daily drudge of extending money, and the implications of managing the…

This article explores how a small sample of working-class mothers encounters the field of education. In the management of family and their children's schooling, mothers bring to bear and replicate ways of knowing that are embodied, are historical and that offer many-sided insights into profoundly stratified societies. Here I draw on Bourdieu's…

Despite increasing rates of university attendance among women, a significant gender gap remains in socialisation and educational processes in Japan. To understand why and how gender-distinctive socialisation processes persist, this study aimed to examine both middle-class and working-class mothers' beliefs about gender, education, and children's…

I set out to explore the question: How do middle-class, working-class and low-income mothers experience their children's out of school summer time? Using qualitative basic interpretive approach, study findings draw from interview data, journal entries and participant observations from a study completed with 22 mothers of varying socioeconomic…

This paper revisits Diana Leonard's seminal paper "Keeping close and spoiling in a south Wales town", by drawing on one mother and daughter case study. Leonard focused on geographical closeness and the strategies employed by parents to keep their children living at home, rather than sending them to university. In contrast, this paper…

The impact of social class backgrounds on young children's educational experiences has attracted increasing attention in early childhood research. However, few longitudinal studies related to social class and parental involvement in young children's education are available, especially in East Asian contexts. In this longitudinal qualitative study,…

Little research has explored linkages between work conditions and mental health in working-class employed parents. The current study aims to address this gap, employing hierarchical linear modeling techniques to examine how levels of and changes in job autonomy, job urgency, supervisor support, and coworker support predicted parents' depressive…

The bio medical expert literature, although contested, associates the use of dummies, soothers or pacifiers, with illness, dental malformation, impaired speech and language, and working-class mothering. This article suggests this negative perspective has filtered, via experts and the media, into public narratives of "good" mothering. Interviews…

Access to higher education in America is increasingly becoming a privilege for upper-class youth. On the other hand, youth in lower socioeconomic groups have less access and are increasingly marginalized and less able to compete in the college choice arena. While parental involvement is one way to fight against this unfortunate trend, parents of…

This paper explores the ways in which working class mothers negotiate mothering and paid work. Drawing on interviews with 70 families with pre-school children, we examine how caring and working responsibilities are conceptualised and presented in mothers' narratives. Mothers showed a high degree of commitment to paid work and, in contrast to…

This study draws on in-depth interview data to discuss the school choices and educational advocacy roles of 14 African-American mothers. The narratives of the study's participants, who have low-income or working-class status, show how race, class and gender factors influence their school choice-making and their value of education. The author…

This article draws on data collected through two focus groups and eight telephone interviews undertaken as part of an evaluation of a local Sure Start programme. Located in the context of New Labour's valorisation of parenting, and specifically mothering, the article explores the impact of Sure Start policy on discourses of motherhood in this…

During in-depth, individual interviews, seventeen battered women involved in the public child welfare system discussed the effects of domestic violence on their children, and their strategies for protecting and supporting them. Most mothers articulated the detrimental effects of domestic violence on their children and coherent strategies to…

This paper explores the emotional resources generated by working class mothers to support their children at school. Analysis of material from qualitative interview research with a range working class mothers will focus on specific accounts of children's school lives to reveal how situated meanings can clash with institutional expectations. By…

A two-year longitudinal study of 200 working women in California urban areas represents an effort to understand the processes by which specific interests and commitments to paid employment develop. Data from intensive personal interviews with women in traditional and nontraditional occupations should indicate factors which facilitate the entry of…