Good mother, bad mother?: Maternal identities and cyber-agency in the primary school homework debate

ABSTRACT

Primary homework in England is widespread and contentious, yet research largely ignores its gendered impact on families. This netnographic study locates mother perspectives online to explore whether participation in mother-focused forums affords maternal cyber-agency in the homework debate. Findings suggest that many women, positioning themselves as ‘good’ mothers, perform their maternal identity online by upholding an ideology of good mothering which expects maternal support for homework. Alternative homework practices are critiqued as ‘bad’ mothering. Although other perspectives emerge, individual mothers’ abilities to create new homework narratives in anonymous online spaces are restricted by the forums’ alignment towards dominant mothering ideologies and their normative practices. These findings question assumptions of maternal empowerment, support and cyber-agency, in online spaces which operate as communities of collective, hegemonic knowledge. Teachers also infiltrate the forums, directing maternal homework behaviours using good mothering. Good mothering’s impact on maternal cyber-agency and forum homework discussion is therefore highlighted.

KEYWORDS:

• Primary school homework
• cyber-agency
• good mothering
• maternal identities
• netnography
• social networking sites

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr Jane Medwell for her advice and would like to thank both her and Dr Sarah Amsler for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Thank you also to the anonymous reviewers for their useful recommendations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J500100/1].

Notes on contributors

Rachel Lehner-Mear

Rachel Lehner-Mear is a doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham School of Education. Her professional career spans primary education and the further education sector. Her research interests include primary education, parental involvement, primary homework and maternal experiences.