Do parenting advice books help or harm? Critiquing ‘common-sense’ advice for mothers raising boys

ABSTRACT

Educationalists lament the resilience of the so-called ‘boy crisis’, despite research that demonstrates only some boys are in crisis, as well as some girls. The boy crisis in New Zealand shows no sign of abating, partly due to popular rhetorical literature in the form of parenting advice books. In particular, authors Celia Lashlie and Nigel Latta have garnered a strong following among parents and educators. In this article we argue their texts not only continue to inflame the boy crisis, they are harmful in the ways they inform narrow ‘de facto’ education policies and practices focused on boys. Our analysis of He’ll be ok and Mothers raising sons found each author privileged particular combinations of classic rhetorical strategies with discourses of essentialist masculinity and mother blame to position their parenting advice as common sense. Our critique highlights the vital importance of examining intersections between parenting advice books and education.

KEYWORDS:

• Boys
• documentary analysis
• discourse analysis
• motherhood
• education Policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Susan Sandretto’s research interests include: critical multiliteracies, critical literacy, gender issues in education, and practitioner research. Her book, Planting seeds: Embedding critical literacy into your classroom programme, weaves together the theory and practice of critical literacy with the New Zealand context. She contributes to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including teacher education. Susan is a former primary school teacher.

Karen Nairn’s research focuses on exclusion in education shaped by gender, sexuality and ethnicity. Her book Children of Rogernomics. A neoliberal generation leaves school, connects the stories of young people with the wider social and economic story of New Zealand during the last three decades. More recently, she co-edited Springer’s Handbook of Geographies of Children and Young People. Space, Place and Environment. Prior to her university career, she was a high school geography teacher.

ORCID

Susan Sandretto http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6106-1032