The Politicization of Parenthood: Shifting private and public responsibilities in education and child rearing (Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research Book 5)

Currently, families are being subjected to increasing public attention with interest focusing on their potential strengths and weaknesses in determining how well children do at school. Parents and children are at the forefront of the welfare state and socio-educational activities in current programs and policies. This book examines the resulting changes in the relationship between families and the state, and the shifting borders of public and private responsibility in education, child care, and childrearing. It considers international and national debates that underline the fact that issues in private life are increasingly entering the public discourse and becoming subject to attempts at socio-political control. Finally, it discusses the growing politicization of parenthood in the (post) welfare state and the increasing attention being paid to the structural conditions of gainful employment and child care as well as to the current relations between the genders. Read more... Abstract: This book explores changes in the relationship of families and the state, and the shifting borders of public and private responsibility in education, child care, and childrearing. Covers the trend toward attempts at socio-political control of private life. Read more... Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Family Policy and the Politics of Parenting: From Function to Competence....Pages 13-26 Families, Professionals, and Responsibility....Pages 27-37 Nordic Politicization of Parenthood: Unfolding Hybridization?....Pages 39-53 Can a Crisis Become an Opportunity? Gender and Care in Contemporary Ireland....Pages 55-68 Parent–School Relations in England and the USA: Partnership, Problematized....Pages 69-83 Family and Welfare State Change: Challenges for Education....Pages 85-99 The Redistribution of Responsibility Between State and Parents: Family in the Context of Post-Welfare-State Transformation....Pages 101-110 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 Early Childhood Education and Social Inequality: Parental Models of a “Good” Childhood....Pages 113-126 Child Well-Being in the UK: Children’s Views of Families....Pages 127-138 The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes....Pages 139-152 Significance of Family and School, Educational Standards, and Social Reproduction in Education....Pages 153-163 Studying at Home: With Whom and in Which Way? Homework Practices and Conflicts in the Family....Pages 165-180 “Having to Keep Silent”: A Capabilities Perspective on Growing Up and the “Education Process” in a Migration Family....Pages 181-194 Front Matter....Pages 195-195 Pushing Parents Away: The Role of District Bureaucracy in an Urban School....Pages 197-212 Symbolic Constructions, Pedagogical Practices, and the Legitimation of All-Day Schooling from a Professional Perspective: Tendencies Towards Familialization in All-Day Schools....Pages 213-220 Parents’ Perspectives on Services to Support Families in All-Day Schools....Pages 221-233 Parental Involvement in All-Day Special Schools for Learning Disabilities....Pages 235-247 Educational or Child-Rearing Partnerships: What Kind of Cooperation Is Needed at All-Day Secondary Schools?....Pages 249-264 School Attachment and Performance: The Impact of Participation in Extracurricular Activities at School....Pages 265-279 Front Matter....Pages 195-195 Daily School Time, Workforce Participation, and Family Life: Time Spent in School as a Condition of Family Life....Pages 281-297 Ideas of Family and Concepts of Responsibility at All-Day Schools....Pages 299-311 Currently, families are being subjected to increasing public attention. Interest is focussing on their potential strengths and weaknesses in determining how well children do at school. Alongside such human-development oriented expectations, families are also becoming a focus of attention as a resource for human capital in times of economic crises and criticism of the welfare state. In many European countries, parents and children are at the forefront of the welfare state and socio-educational activities in current programs and policies. The current transformation processes in the welfare state are making the relationship between families and the state more dynamic in general, and they are structuring the discourses on the childrearing, education, and child care services in the fields of both public and private responsibility. The introduction of all-day schooling in Germany also has to be viewed in this context. This is gradually changing the traditional half-day structure of German schools and shifting the borders of public and private responsibility on the levels of education, child care, and childrearing institutions. The attention given to parental childrearing and educational responsibility within the context of current national and international debates clearly underlines the fact that issues in private life are increasingly entering the public discourse and becoming subject to attempts at socio-political control. This raises the assumption of an increasing politicization of parenthood in the (post) welfare state that is focusing more and more attention on the structural conditions of gainful employment and child care as well as on the current relations between the genders. This context particularly emphasizes the time and care regimes that decisively determine the practices in daily family life and the utilization of all-day education settings. "Certain events in one's life, such as marriage, joining the workforce, and growing older, can become important determinants of political attitudes and voting choice. Each of these events has been the subject of considerable study, but in The Politics of Parenthood, Laurel Elder and Steven Greene look at the political impact of one of life's most challenging adult experiences -- having and raising children. Using a comprehensive array of both quantitative and qualitative analyses, Elder and Greene systematically reveal for the first time how the very personal act of raising a family is also a politically defining experience, one that shapes the political attitudes of Americans on a range of important policy issues. They document how political parties, presidential candidates, and the news media have politicized parenthood and the family over not just one election year, but the last several decades. They conclude that the way the themes of parenthood and the family have evolved as partisan issues at the mass and elite levels has been driven by, and reflects fundamental shifts in, American society and the structure of the American family."--Publisher