Choice Within Constraints: Mothers and schooling

ABSTRACT This article explores the discourses of choice in the context of the current, and international, public policy debates about providing freedom of choice for parents as consumers in the education market place. In particular it explores the public and private discourses of choice to illustrat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gender and education 1997-12, Vol.9 (4), p.397-410
Main Authors: DAVID, MIRIAM, DAVIES, JACKIE, EDWARDS, ROSALIND, STANDING, DIANE REAY KAY
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birth
Child Rearing
Children
Choices
Compulsory Education
Constraints
Consumer behavior
Decision Making
Discourse Analysis
Education policy
Educational Plans
Elementary Secondary Education
England
Family (Sociological Unit)
Family School Relationship
Family Work Relationship
Females
Feminism
Feminist Criticism
Freedom
Ideology
Moral Issues
Mothers
Parental choice
Parents
Political Attitudes
Predictor Variables
Private Agencies
Public Policy
School Choice
Schools
Social Problems
Society
State Policy
State Regulation
Womens Roles
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Summary:ABSTRACT This article explores the discourses of choice in the context of the current, and international, public policy debates about providing freedom of choice for parents as consumers in the education market place. In particular it explores the public and private discourses of choice to illustrate the argument that mothers as parents are not 'free to choose' but act within a range of constraints. We term these both structural and moral constraints and offer evidence about them as experienced by mothers over time in relation to bringing up children, from resources to negotiations about relationships and expectations about both the nature of family life, employment and their children's place within the future. It also offers some evidence from our various research studies of mothers from their perspectives, about the processes of choice, in the context of both structural and moral constraints, including issues about involvement in their children's education and schooling. Consideration is also given to mothers' evaluations of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their possibilities of child rearing and education. The article concludes with the argument that mothers' experiences of the processes of bringing up and educating their children are not at all in harmony with the, albeit contradictory, public policy discourse of their being free to choose. Mothers' various perspectives from their varied vantage points are indeed limited by structural and moral possibilities in a patriarchal and racist society.
ISSN:0954-0253
1360-0516
DOI:10.1080/09540259721150