The politics of aspiration: neo-liberal education policy, ‘low’ parental aspirations, and primary school Extended Services in disadvantaged communities

Holloway, Sarah L.; Pimlott‐Wilson, Helena

doi:10.1080/14733285.2011.540441

Cited by 68 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…2012; Hall 2008, 2011; Hall and Appleyard 2011; Holdsworth 2009; Jeffrey et al. 2008; Taylor 2001; Warrington 2005; Waters 2006a,b, 2008; Xiang and Shen 2009); neoliberalisation (Gould 2000; Holloway and Pimlott‐Wilson 2011; Lewis 2005, 2011; Mitchell 2003; Olds 2007); postcolonialism (Jeffrey et al. 2004; Madge et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of International Education: Mobilities and the Reproduction of Social (Dis)advantage

Waters¹

2012

Geography Compass

171

109

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This paper provides a critical perspective on emergent geographies of international education, suggesting what these might mean for the reproduction of social (dis)advantage. The assertion that formal education may have regressive consequences for social mobility is hardly new – work on the sociology and geography of education has for a long time shown uncontrovertibly that the opportunities and rewards associated with formal education are unevenly distributed across space, as well as being differentiated by social class. Until relatively recently, however, work focussing on the remarkable transformation of formal education through internationalisation, and its implications for social inequalities, has been limited. This paper provides a critical review of a now burgeoning area of geographical scholarship around international education and student mobilities. It argues that the evidence, to date, suggests that international education entrenches (and in some cases, within emerging economies, actively creates) social inequalities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of International Education: Mobilities and the Reproduction of Social (Dis)advantage

Waters¹

2012

Geography Compass

171

109

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“…The Every Child Matters Green Paper (HM Treasury, 2003), for example, identified parenting as vital in shaping both positive and negative outcomes for children, a belief further evidenced in Alan Johnson's (then Secretary of State for Education) forward to Every Parent Matters (DfES, 2007a, page 3) where he stated " [p]arents and the home environment they create are the single most important factor in shaping their children's wellbeing, achievements and prospects." This belief led New Labour to overcome previous reticence about state involvement in parenting and to use parenting interventions to tackle both social exclusion and antisocial behaviour (James, 2009), tasking parents with inculcating both educational aspirations that would facilitate children's social inclusion as adult citizen-workers, and codes of conduct that would ensure current and future social stability (Holloway and Pimlott-Wilson, 2011). In this way, the roll-out neoliberalism of New Labour led to the development of a multifaceted parenting support agenda which spread across a range of Government Departments, including that with responsibility for education (Utting, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Any Advice is Welcome Isn't it?”: Neoliberal Parenting Education, Local Mothering Cultures, and Social Class

Holloway

Pimlott‐Wilson

2014

Environ Plan A

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Abstract. Geographers have shown considerable interest in neoliberal educational restructuring as states across the Global North have sought to respond to the challenges of economic change through the development of a skilled population. Existing research provides a wide-ranging analysis of the ways neoliberal states seek to shape individual citizens through their own learning. Greater attention now needs to be paid to new and developing ways in which they seek to influence the context in which future citizenworkers are raised. This paper focuses on parenting education which is growing across OECD countries. Social science critiques suggest that parenting classes are part of a professionalisation of parenting which has sought to impose middle-class mores on working-class parents, at the same time as parenting has been unwarrantedly cast as a context-free skill. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore the attitudes of parents of different social class positions to parenting education, tracing the ways these emerge in and through particular sociospatial contexts. The paper reveals the importance of local class-based cultures of mothering in influencing both the attitudes of individual mothers to parenting classes, and the success of neoliberal policy implementation in diverse socioeconomic neighbourhoods. In conclusion the paper emphasises: the importance of geographical research into newly emerging forms of education; the value of engaging with the subjects of neoliberal education policy because their attitudes influence its implementation in practice; and the need to set educational provision in its wider geographical context, as this can shape the success of policies delivered in and through educational institutions.

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“…These mothers’ cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986) is more likely to align with that required by the education system and their efforts work to the advantage of their own children, though not necessarily others in their child's school (Reay 2010; Landeros 2011; Lareau and Lopes 2012). Working class mothers, by contrast, have been shown to care equally (if differently) about their children's schooling (Holloway and Pimlott‐Wilson 2011; Hartas 2012) and to provide considerable levels of emotional support to help children survive school (Gillies 2006), but they are less likely to have the cultural, social, and economic capital which is required to interact with the education system (Hutchison 2012). Cross‐cutting class lines, parents of diverse ethnic majority and minority backgrounds have been shown to have very different relationships to parental involvement in schools (Huntsinger and Jose 2009; Vincent, Rollock et al 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental involvement in children's learning: Mothers' fourth shift, social class, and the growth of state intervention in family life

Holloway

Pimlott‐Wilson

2013

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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Nation states across the global North are restructuring their education systems. This process has changed the relationship between school and home, with an increasing onus being placed on parents to involve themselves in their children's education. The article explores what mothers with different social class positions think about state attempts to enrol them in the education of their primary‐aged children (ages 4–11), and considers their experience of school curriculum events designed to encourage and guide their help for children's learning within the home. Mothers’ support for this form of educational restructuring is widespread, but motivations for, and experiences of, involvement vary significantly between higher‐, middle‐ and low‐income schools. This matters as parental involvement not only increases mothers’ workloads—adding a fourth shift to the existing demands of paid labour, domestic work, and their own education/training—but also risks widening social inequality as middle‐class children potentially benefit more than their working class counterparts. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the need for geographies of education to: explore parents’ gendered and classed engagement with education; trace the sectors’ changing spatiality in the context of growing links between different sites of learning; and produce geographies that look both inward into the education system and outward at its importance in wider society.

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The politics of aspiration: neo-liberal education policy, ‘low’ parental aspirations, and primary school Extended Services in disadvantaged communities

Cited by 68 publications

References 42 publications

Geographies of International Education: Mobilities and the Reproduction of Social (Dis)advantage

Geographies of International Education: Mobilities and the Reproduction of Social (Dis)advantage

“Any Advice is Welcome Isn't it?”: Neoliberal Parenting Education, Local Mothering Cultures, and Social Class

Parental involvement in children's learning: Mothers' fourth shift, social class, and the growth of state intervention in family life

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