‘It’s a tiger instinct – that’s my baby!’: affective practices of care in parents’ educational activism

Abstract

This article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring parents’ struggles over their children’s education. Drawing on affective practice theory (Wetherell 2012) and feminist care ethics (Fisher and Tronto 1990), we offer insights into the affective practices of care driving parents’ educational activism. We detail how parents’ activism is rooted in both powerful feelings of parental responsibility and wider, more altruistic concerns. We argue that parents’ activism disrupts the binary between altruism and self-interest, indicating instead they can be mutually constitutive of collective action; a complex form of affective practice we designate altruistic self-interest. Our analysis suggests parental activism can be a force for progressive educational change in which care for intimates and care for others coincide, but also that educational authorities might adopt a more care-full approach when making key decisions affecting children, families and communities.