‘I am the black duck’ affective aspects of working-class mothers’ involvement in parental communities

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse working-class mothers’ narratives of social interactions among parents at their children’s schools. A special focus is paid to the emotions that arise in such interactions and their role in the reproduction of class. A narrative analysis of six stories of white, working-class mothers of compulsory school aged children was carried out. The study is set in Iceland, which gives a unique opportunity for classed and gendered analysis of parental communities as the country is at the forefront of gender equality in the world. Additionally, the compulsory school system is still relatively unsegregated. Findings show that the parental communities reproduce the symbolic violence endured by the working-class mothers within the field of education. Accounts of resistance and anger are present in some of the accounts but affective responses such as inferiority and shame are all-encompassing and contribute to the reproduction of class.

Keywords:

• Parental communities
• mothering
• qualitative method
• class
• gender

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the participants of this study who trusted me with their intimate stories. I hope I have been worthy of your trust.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The literature review of this articles makes mostly use of UK and US studies on educative work and the reproduction of class. Wherever possible I have added Icelandic references, but this area of research has been given close to no attention by Icelandic scholars. The Icelandic context is bound to be somewhat different from the UK and US social and classed context and therefore the relevance must not be taken at a face value. However, given the scant studies on the Icelandic context it will have to suffice for now. This lack of Icelandic studies on the matter further underscores the importance of this study.

2 See guidlines without housing cost here: https://www.stjornarradid.is/verkefni/felags-og-fjolskyldumal/neysluvidmid/reiknivel-fyrir-neysluvidmid/$Neysluvidmid2018/Index/

3 This data is not public.

4 The income quintiles are calculated based on all families with school aged children in Reykjavik metropolitan area and Akureyri using the OECD modified equivalence scale. Statistics Iceland collected this data from annual tax reports.

5 Information on the parents’ education level is derived from Statistics Iceland’s census that currently maintains information on the educational background of 90% of Icelandic citizens and for 60% of foreign citizens residing in Iceland. For the remaining 40%, a hot deck imputation is used to estimate their education based on gender, age, country of origin, and year of moving to Iceland.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund.