Motherhood, Childhood, and Parenting in an Age of Education

This book offers a conceptualization of the high demands of parenthood, tracing the emerging narrative about the "good mother", changes in the assumptions of what constitutes the "good mother", and the implications for the "good childhood".

Motherhood, as a celebrated yet underappreciated role, is often thought of as a natural process, something instinctive that we refine by watching our own mothers and others in our community. We rarely think of motherhood as something that is time and culturally specific, yet, like culture itself, it is socially constructed, and both motherhood and childhood evolve over time. With the rise in educational attainment of mothers in the American population, the expectations associated with childhood increasingly include not just education but cognitive development and extracurricular activities as the partnership between parents and education intensifies in the joint project of human development of children. *Motherhood, Childhood, and Parenting in an Age of Education* offers a new way to conceptualize the high demands of contemporary parenthood. It traces the emerging narrative about the "good mother," changes in the underlying assumptions of what constitutes the "good mother," and the implications for the "good childhood" as education grows in institutional strength. This book demonstrates that education is driving the formation of the parent and child roles in the dominant contemporary culture of the US although alternate models exist. Education itself has expanded over time to become our largest social intervention, defining behaviors and beliefs such as parental involvement in schooling, the unengaged parent, and the deficient student.

Autorentext

Maryellen Schaub is an associate professor of education policy studies in the College of Education at the Pennsylvania State University and the professor-in-charge of the Education Theory and Policy program. As a sociologist of education, she investigates how social institutions, particularly family and schooling, intertwine and overlap in society. Her current research delves deeply into the social constructions of parenting and childhood, examining it from a number of angles and organizations. For example, she has published on topics as diverse as the increase of parent engagement in early childhood cognitive activities, the expansion of early childhood education, and the growth of child rights worldwide.

Inhalt

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. An Invitation

2. The Good Mother Goes to School

3. The "Good Childhood" Is a Delicate Balancing Act

4. The Institutional Invasion

5. The "Good Mother" Is an Engaged Parent

6. The Normative Lens

7. Before the Invasion

8. The Invited Invasion as a Joint Project with the Family

References