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Parent engagement is a contested concept, but can be constructed as a set of behaviours, informed by dominant discourses constituting perceived good parenting (Gross et al., Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(3), 747–760, 2020). This chapter challenges how mothering discourses and pressures to conform to “good mother” ideals reproduce inequality and social injustice in Scottish early years professions. Childcare practitioners are often parents themselves, with research indicating that traditionally caring professions recruit from working-class socio-economic backgrounds (Osgood, Narratives from the nursery: Negotiating professional identities in early childhood, Routledge, 2012). Gaiman (Wise and foolish virgins: White women at work in the feminized world of primary school teaching, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/gla/detail.action?docID=902593 , 2012) argues that discursive rhetoric framing female-dominated professions as worthy occupations unfairly maintains low pay and status, thus perpetuating social injustice. This also legitimises good mother discourses, often attached to behaviours demonstrating the selfless, available working-class mother, negotiating suitable paid employment to prioritise childcaring responsibilities (Braun et al., Journal of Education Policy, 23(5), 533–548, 2008). In addition, many working-class mothers feel stigmatised by parent engagement, constantly striving to demonstrate expected standards of being good enough (Wilson & McGuire, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(5–6), 775–791, 2021). Whilst neoliberal policies are based on regulating perceived deficiencies (Gospel & Lewis, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(4), 601–622, 2011), arguably, professional upskilling can be discursively framed as a re-education of parents (Jensen, Parenting the crisis: The cultural politics of parent-blame, Policy Press, 2018). Government-led good mother behaviours reproduced by childcare practitioners during parent engagement are discursively framed as early intervention, which, as Westerling (Education, parenting, and mental health care in Europe: The contradictions of building autonomous individuals. Routledge, pp. 161–174, 2024) argues, are the “re-institutionalising of parenthood”.

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Mothering Discourses, Parent Engagement and Social Injustice in Scottish Early Years Professions

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Penny Anderson,
  • Marie McQuade

摘要

Parent engagement is a contested concept, but can be constructed as a set of behaviours, informed by dominant discourses constituting perceived good parenting (Gross et al., Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(3), 747–760, 2020). This chapter challenges how mothering discourses and pressures to conform to “good mother” ideals reproduce inequality and social injustice in Scottish early years professions. Childcare practitioners are often parents themselves, with research indicating that traditionally caring professions recruit from working-class socio-economic backgrounds (Osgood, Narratives from the nursery: Negotiating professional identities in early childhood, Routledge, 2012). Gaiman (Wise and foolish virgins: White women at work in the feminized world of primary school teaching, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/gla/detail.action?docID=902593 , 2012) argues that discursive rhetoric framing female-dominated professions as worthy occupations unfairly maintains low pay and status, thus perpetuating social injustice. This also legitimises good mother discourses, often attached to behaviours demonstrating the selfless, available working-class mother, negotiating suitable paid employment to prioritise childcaring responsibilities (Braun et al., Journal of Education Policy, 23(5), 533–548, 2008). In addition, many working-class mothers feel stigmatised by parent engagement, constantly striving to demonstrate expected standards of being good enough (Wilson & McGuire, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(5–6), 775–791, 2021). Whilst neoliberal policies are based on regulating perceived deficiencies (Gospel & Lewis, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(4), 601–622, 2011), arguably, professional upskilling can be discursively framed as a re-education of parents (Jensen, Parenting the crisis: The cultural politics of parent-blame, Policy Press, 2018). Government-led good mother behaviours reproduced by childcare practitioners during parent engagement are discursively framed as early intervention, which, as Westerling (Education, parenting, and mental health care in Europe: The contradictions of building autonomous individuals. Routledge, pp. 161–174, 2024) argues, are the “re-institutionalising of parenthood”.