Influence of learning in parent-child relationships: a working model

In the humdrum activity of daily life we may pay scant attention to what we do, how we influence, or even less to how others influence us. Goffman (1968) describes these

“non-biography creating areas of life” (p.88) as thus:

In the everyday life of an average person there will be long stretches of time when events involving him will be memorable to no one, a technical but not active part of his biography. Only a serious personal accident or the witnessing of a murder will create moments in these dead periods which have a place in the reviews he and others come to make of his past.

(Goffman 1968, p. 89)

These ‘dead periods’, whilst unremarkable, make up the very fabric of our lives yet often pass by unnoticed. But it is these very moments that need to be brought to prominence.

Only then can we begin to understand our social selves, our relationships and the influences that surround us. Perhaps a good example of influence is demonstrated in the Welsh education campaign entitled What you say counts (National Numeracy 2014).

The campaign was launched to encourage parents to be more positive about maths. It stems from a Welsh poll undertaken in February 2014 that found just under a third of parents talk negatively about maths in front of their children (BBC 2014). Indeed, what parents say and do in the presence of their children is vitally important. If it becomes part of a normal routine to talk negatively about maths in the household, then sooner or later children will come to believe that it is acceptable to be bad at maths.

Parents will school their children in different ways and through different forms but in education terms, parents draw upon three main sources: their initial education (school);

daily life, work and volunteering; and learning acquired via the traditional or ACL pathway. Parents also draw on other forms of support to help their children; they may hire private tutors, refer to family members or friends, or obtain information from the internet, for example. However, as this study is concerned with initial education (school) and ACL participation, for the moment, I will primarily focus on these two aspects.

Drawing on Darling and Steinberg’s (1993) contextual model of parenting framework, I

present a model to explain the influence of learning in parent-child relationships - see Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3 Model to understand the influence of learning in parent-child relationships

By including the main source of parents’ education (for example, initial education, work and learning acquired via the ACL pathway) to parenting, goals, styles, and practices, the framework can be used as a heuristic tool to identify the processes involved in parent-child relationships. To explain my point further, I provide a simple working example to highlight the process of influence in the mother child relationship.

In this example both Mother A and Mother B perceive homework to be a necessary task towards getting a good education (goals and values) and believe that helping their child to complete homework on time is important to each child’s success (parenting practice).

Mother A has taken the ACL pathway and during this period has built up a considerable bank of knowledge and resources. At home the emotional climate towards learning is positive. Mother and child have shared learning interests, they work well together, and the child is openly welcome to the mother’s offers of support. Homework tasks are thus completed with few problems or arguments (parenting style). In contrast, despite trying her utmost, Mother B is unable to help her child with homework mainly because since leaving school with no qualifications, having only been involved in ‘on the job’ training at work, she lacks the knowledge and confidence in her abilities to help her child academically. Therefore, in this scenario, the homework task is blighted by a negative emotional climate; the mother expressing a sense of frustration and worry in her attempts

to support her child (parenting style and emotion). In this case, Mother B has two options: to either give up and admit defeat, or alternatively to seek help from elsewhere, for example, through private tuition, help from family members or friends, or to trawl through the internet for information. If one or more of these processes is successful, then the problem of support will likely be resolved, and the child can move on.

3.8 Summary of chapter

In this chapter I explored the concept of parental involvement in schooling, outlining changes in education policy that led to the increase in parental involvement from the 1980s onwards. Next, I looked at frameworks and models of parental involvement in schooling, illustrating Russell and Granville’s (2005) template which summarises the types and levels of involvement. I then looked at the literature on school choice, parents’

perceptions of role and responsibilities in schooling, the effect of social class on schooling practices and behaviours, the literature on home-school relationships, and help with homework. In the following sections, I outlined patterns and trends in education and presented a brief overview of the Welsh education context. I next presented research on ACL participation undertaken to date, and briefly looked at child-parent influences in the home learning environment.

To conceptualise the influence of learning in parent-child relationships I looked towards recent literature for inspiration. Most studies focused on patterns and trends, much less about understanding the processes and underlying mechanisms that support the patterns and trends. However, the model presented in Brassett-Grundy’s research (2004b) provided a foundation of thought that led me to consider looking at other ways of interpreting the influence of learning in parent-child relationships. Later, drawing on the work of Bourdieu (1977) and Reay’s concept of emotional capital (2000), along with Darling and Steinberg’s work on parenting style (1993), I created a working model to use as a heuristic tool to understand the process of influence in parent-child relationships.

However, the model was not necessarily useful to identify the underlying mechanisms of influence. Further work later needed to be undertaken to find a way to uncover the mechanisms. I outline the procedure of how I achieve this in the next chapter, entitled Methodological Considerations.