Education, parenting and family: The social geographies of family learning

an article by Emma Wainwright and Elodie Marandet (Brunel University London, UK) published in British Educational Research Journal Volume 43 Issue 2 (April 2017)

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between education, parenting and family through the prism and particularities of family learning.

Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities.

Based on qualitative research undertaken in West London, this paper draws on individual and group interviews with mothers participating in family learning classes and interviews with family learning providers. The key argument we extend is that focusing on the social geographies of family learning - of home, school, work, community and nation - allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state's reach in family life, producing particular normative versions of family and ‘good’ parenting operating at a range of interconnecting scales.

Education remains a cornerstone of family policy in the UK and detailed analyses of specific initiatives at the point of implementation – how they are practised and received – is vital for better understanding their diverse and varied effects in contemporary society.

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