Parents resourcing children’s early development and learning

Parents deal with a complex web of choices when seeking and using knowledge and resources related to their young children’s literacy development. Information concerning children’s learning and development comes in many forms and is produced by an increasingly diverse range of players including governments, non‐government organisations and commercial businesses. This study used a survey, interview and artefact collection to investigate mothers’ and fathers’ reported activities in seeking, accessing, producing and circulating information and resources related to children’s learning and development. Differences were found relating to parent gender and level of education. Parents’ resourcing activities are also shaped by their particular goals for their children.     

‘If it weren’t for my mum…’: the influence of Australian Indigenous mothers on their children’s aspirations to teach

This article draws upon data from semi‐structured interviews with Australian Indigenous teachers to explore the role their mothers played in shaping their decisions to become teachers. The findings suggest that their mothers’ emotional involvement and investment in their sons’ and daughters’ education generated significant reserves of emotional capital upon which the teachers drew. Such capital, expressed by their mothers in a variety of ways, including encouragement, coercion and anger, motivated and inspired them to complete their schooling, to consider teaching as a profession and to take out teaching degrees, often in the face of enormous challenges and barriers. They understood teaching as presenting opportunities for their own upward class mobility as well as the chance for them to bring about social change for Indigenous people in general. I conclude by arguing the need to reconsider the dominant discourses in Australia around the aspirations of Indigenous mothers in regards to their children’s education and I also raise issues for further consideration and research.     

A sex education programme for mothers in Iran: Does preschool children’s sex education influence mothers’ knowledge and attitudes?

Mothers have an important role to play in teaching their children about sexual issues and shaping children’s sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. In many cases, however, mothers themselves need help and support. This study was conducted to examine the effects of a sex education programme on the knowledge and attitudes of the mothers of pre-school children. Eighty mothers of pre-school children were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received an education and training programme delivered over two 2-h sessions. The control group received no such intervention. Researcher-constructed knowledge and attitude questionnaires were completed by both groups before and one month after the intervention. Findings showed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of knowledge and attitudes before the training. After the education and training intervention, however, there was a significant increase in the mean score for both knowledge and attitudes in the experimental group compared to the control group. Study findings suggest that the sex education programme for the mothers of pre-school children can improve their knowledge and attitudes.     

‘It’s the best thing I’ve done in a long while’: teenage mothers’ experiences of educational alternatives

Pregnant and mothering schoolgirls have been identified as an educationally vulnerable group. Many are not welcomed in their mainstream schools and as a consequence, access a range of educational alternatives. This article presents the views and experiences of 14 young women in the English Midlands, who became pregnant while still of statutory school age, 12 of whom spent time in alternative educational settings. It is based on data gathered from repeat interviews over an 18-month period and shows that all who attended the educational alternatives rated them highly and benefitted from what they had to offer. Using the concept of ‘difference’ as a central analytic theme, the article examines how and why this was the case. The analysis shows that it was through recognising some differences but not others that the educational alternatives were successful in supporting young women’s learning and well-being. Importantly, those that were recognised were done so in non-stigmatising ways. The research also highlights some limitations of the alternatives, alongside the ways in which gender and class continue to impact the educational outcomes and career trajectories of this particular group of students.     

‘I connected so well with it’: a teen mother talks about reading

In this paper, one 19‐year‐old married mother who was sexually abused when younger discusses the painful and important role reading has played in her life. By using narrative discourse analysis, I parse the young mother’s spoken narrative and illuminate the emotions that cluster around her reading experiences. I discover that she has used reading as a way to make sense of the traumatic experiences of her childhood. I discover as well that, though she evidences immaturity, her moral thinking – refined through her roles as daughter, mother, and wife – is more nuanced than are the texts she is able to read. The questions I ask about her relationship to these books can be generalized to many non‐traditional students going to high schools, or reading in book clubs, today.     

Reciprocal learning in partnership practice: an exploratory study of a home visiting program for mothers with depression

The paper proposes that the function and meaning of adult learning has significantly changed since the times the ‘founding fathers’ outlined a philosophical framework for adult education. And already for them the philosophy of conventional education never really seemed adequate. Likewise, a philosophy of adult education today–which is badly needed ‐‐ can no longer be derived from the philosophy of conventional education, and must be elaborated from bottom‐up, i.e. by understanding themeaning of learning for adult learners today as well as the function of adult learning in present society.     

The new female breadwinner: discursively doing and undoing gender relations

Public discourse of late has drawn attention to increases in number of married women in the U.S. who serve as their families’ primary breadwinners. Contributing to these conversations, this study examines how breadwinning mothers (BWMs) reproduce, resist or challenge hegemonic gender relations through an analysis of different ways these women discursively position their identities and tasks as earners. Findings from a discourse analysis of interviews with 44 female breadwinners married to stay-at-home fathers are presented in relation to 5 aspects of conventional breadwinning that emerged across BWMs discourse: (a) breadwinning as career-primary, (b) breadwinning as obligation, (c) breadwinning suitability and personality, (d) breadwinning as relational power and (e) breadwinners as ideal workers. Practical applications of these findings are considered in relation to women’s work–life conflict, martial role negotiation, and workplace interactions and interventions.     

FOCUS ON PRACTICE: Difficulties in initiating and sustaining peer friendships: perspectives on students diagnosed with AD/HD

In this article, Myra Taylor, research fellow, and Professor Stephen Houghton of the Centre for Child and Adolescent Related Disorders at the University of Western Australia, report theory generated from interviews with teachers, students and mothers residing in Perth, Western Australia, on how children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) initiate and sustain peer relationships. An initial review of the three sample groups’ respective perspectives reveals that children with AD/HD exhibit three distinct socialisation patterns: a socially integrated pattern (that is, having three or more ongoing friendship pairings with peers); a marginal integrated pattern (that is, having two or less ongoing friendship pairings with peers); and a socially isolated pattern (that is, having no, or infrequent, friendship pairings with peers). Both teacher and maternal perspectives are similar in so far as both perceive children with attention deficit disorders to have marginal to non‐existent friendships. Students with AD/HD perceive themselves, however, as having strongly to marginally formed friendships with their peers. Myra Taylor and Stephen Houghton explore suggestions that differences between adult and child perspectives relate to diagnostic status, age and developmental maturity. They identify opportunities for further research arising out of their work and indicate that a wider evidence base will be needed before robust recommendations for practice can be made.     

不同教育背景母亲在亲子会话中词汇运用的差异比较

为探讨不同教育背景的母亲在母子会话中词汇运用水平的差异,本研究对40对母子在自发会话时母亲的词汇运用水平进行了研究,其中40位母亲具有不同的教育背景,其子女年龄分别在18个月、24个月、30个月、36个月四个年龄段。结果表明:在词汇的整体运用水平上,高教育背景母亲的词汇运用水平高于低教育背景母亲,且在基本词汇频次和丰富性等方面呈显著差异;在影响关系上,高教育背景母亲的母子双方词汇运用水平相关程度较高,二者多数为显著或极其显著,而低教育背景母子双方词汇运用水平相关程度低,甚至出现负相关,显示高教育背景母亲对儿童指向言语更为敏感。但研究结果同时显示:两类母亲在运用词汇时均对儿童词汇的年龄发展规律不敏感,因此两类母亲对儿童指向言语的年龄变化的敏感度都不高。