Search

This paper explores the relationship between education, parenting and family through the prism and particularities of family learning. Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities. Based on qualitative research undertaken in West London, this paper draws on individual and group interviews with mothers participating in family learning classes and interviews with family learning providers. The key argument we extend is that focusing on the social geographies of family learning--of home, school, work, community and nation--allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state's reach in family life, producing particular normative versions of family and "good" parenting operating at a range of interconnecting scales. Education remains a cornerstone of family policy in the UK and detailed analyses of specific initiatives at the point of implementation--how they are practiced and received--is vital for better understanding their diverse and varied effects in contemporary society.

Intra- and inter-generational social mobility have been implicit to a wide range of UK Government policies aimed at promoting social inclusion through a focus on education and employability. Framed by these policy initiatives and a critical look at widening participation in higher education, this paper reflects on the impacts of university learning on the self and the family among students with dependent children. With emphasis on, and differences highlighted between, male and female undergraduate students' own (often gendered) constructions of the impact of their university experiences and aspirations for social mobility, the paper suggests that while these students face numerous and varied barriers to their learning, they are motivated by the impact their studying will have on themselves and their families. Of notable significance is how higher education is perceived to reverberate within the home, promoting a culture of learning among, and encouraging the educational aspirations of, children. The paper concludes that this potential and perceived social mobility necessitates a bridging of the rhetoric of access with a reality of accessibility and retention for those students with caring responsibilities and offers a number of recommendations to encourage this. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper analyses the results of a research project on the experiences and learning needs of students with dependent children in a 1960s university. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with university services and academic staff, as well as a questionnaire survey among students with dependent children and follow-up in-depth interviews with a sample of 18 of these students. The paper shows that, for those surveyed, future employment opportunities and being a role model for their children were the main motivations for entering higher education and that their choice of university was highly spatially restricted by their caring responsibilities. It also discusses the main issues students faced once at university, including time and timing, finance, childcare, confidence, sense of belonging and skills. The paper highlights how gender and other biographical characteristics influence parents' experiences and includes suggestions for lessening the barriers they face while at university. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)