Working class mothers and school life: exploring the role of emotional capital

Abstract

This paper explores the emotional resources generated by working class mothers to support their children at school. Analysis of material from qualitative interview research with a range working class mothers will focus on specific accounts of children’s school lives to reveal how situated meanings can clash with institutional expectations. By drawing on the concept of emotional capital I show how sanctioned models of parental involvement in education demand an emotional investment that makes considerably more sense to middle class mothers, reaping academic success and a positive experience of intimacy. In contrast working class parents and their children commonly experience school in terms of conflict and stress, requiring a different kind of emotional capital. For these mothers, emotional investments are focused on keeping their children safe, soothing feelings of failure and low self‐worth, and challenging injustice. The paper argues that material and social contexts shape and contain mothers’ emotional commitments to their children and calls for a greater recognition of the contributions made by working class mothers in enabling their children to survive school.