| Abstract: | We interviewed 28 parents who had at least one child who had just finished compulsory schooling in the state sector. We asked them about their choice of school and their experience of compulsory schooling for their child. Discipline was a key element in their responses. We analysed the data to elucidate the different ways in which ‘discipline’ was of significance for these parents. We examined why they talked about discipline in this way. These included reference to employability, a concern for the ‘moral order’ and the maintenance of adult authority. We attempted to understand what was being said by seeing it as embedded in their way of life. Power relations between adult/child and resulting from social location were relevant to this understanding. |
