This paper draws on qualitative data exploring the experiences of first-generation middle-class Black Caribbean-heritage parents, their own parents, and their children. We focus on the different ways in which race and class intersect in shaping attitudes towards education and subsequent educational practices. We argue that the nature of racism has…

This paper reports on qualitative data that focus on the educational strategies of middle-class parents of Black Caribbean heritage. Drawing on Bourdieu's key concepts of habitus, capital and field, our focus is an investigation of the differences that are apparent between respondent parents in their levels of involvement with regard to schools.…

This paper reports on data drawn from a study exploring the educational strategies of 62 Black Caribbean heritage middle-class parents. In this paper, we consider the respective roles of race and class in the shaping of parents' educational strategies, deploying an analysis that focuses on their intersection and seeks to hold both race and class…

The paper draws on an ESRC-funded study of 70 families in two London locations. It focuses on a set of contemporary and contradictory political discourses that work on and through the lives of working-class mothers and thereby create tensions and impossibilities within their lives. We illustrate the ways in which these women are positioned by and…

Childcare is a condensate of disparate social forces and social processes. It is gendered and classed. It is subject to an excess of policy and political discourse. It is increasingly a focus for commercial exploitation. This is a paper reporting on work in progress in an ESRC funded research project (R000239232) on the choice and provision of…

While recognition of the need to involve parents in the life of the school grows in public policy, anxiety continues at the intervention of 'the angry parent'. This paper seeks to develop understanding of this communicative action and apply it to a study of parental voice in schools that identified a number of expressions of 'storming'. The paper…

Analyzes the patterns and variations of "grapevining," or social networks, through interviews with 172 parents who were in the process of choosing secondary schools for their children. Finds that there are three types of parent responses to using the grapevine as a means for school choice: (1) suspicion; (2) doubt; and (3) acceptance. (CMK)

Focuses on a parent education group that offers an accredited practical skills course aimed at familiarizing parents with educational activities suitable for young children. Examines the content of the course and the experiences of female students; the discourse of "sensitive mothering" and its application; and the relationships between teachers…