Mothers and Education: Inside Out? Exploring Family-Education Policy and Experience.

Overview & Synopsis

This book uses a case study approach to present a feminist perspective on the relationship between mothers and education at different levels in the education system. Discussed in the introduction are the relevance of the concept of boundaries to discussions of relationships and interactions between mothers and education. The first four chapters examine the following aspects of mothers' roles as mediators for their children's education: construction of understanding through public policies on home-school relations and parental roles in education, mothers' experiences of maternal authority in relation to young children, and mothers' and teachers' negotiations over their children. Examined in the next three chapters are the following: contradictory notions of women's family-based lives that have been incorporated into public policy agendas, boundaries between the notions of university education and the "university of life" identified in a study of mature female students at higher education institutions in southeastern England, mothers' attitude toward and experience of higher education and their views regarding its importance for their own children's experiences and education. The concluding chapter reiterates the importance of including mothers' ways of understanding and interpreting the world into public policy agendas. A 238-item bibliography is included. (MN)