Parental involvement in homework: A qualitative Bourdieusian study of class, privilege, and social reproduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on homework, particularly using qualitative approaches, is neglected in sociological literature. This qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian interpretive lens to explore parental homework practices in a middle-class, urban setting in Ireland. In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with six parents and six teachers of pupils aged 10–11 years. We found that parents’ homework practices involved providing practical, educational, and emotional supports for their children. Homework offers a valuable analytic site wherein particularities of habitus, field, and capitals are revealed. Middle-class parents possess the requisite capitals to succeed in meeting schools’ expectations; they align their practices closely with those of the school, successfully replicating the field of the school; and they activate economic, cultural, and social capital on behalf of their children, such that the presence and use of many capitals are normalised in the familial quotidien, thereby privileging their children, and making visible micro-processes of social reproduction.