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Families and Transition to School pp 85–100Cite as

Primary School Choice and the ‘Good’ Mother: Balancing Complex Support Needs and Responsibility

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Abstract

The principle of school choice has become firmly embedded in the education context of Australia. This chapter examines the primary school choices made by three mothers described as having complex support needs, living in New South Wales, Australia. These needs related both to their own health and well-being, as well as those of other family members. The mothers participated in a series of conversational interviews as their children prepared for, and later started, school. Aligned with decisions about school choice, the mothers described the responsibilities they felt to make the ‘right’ school choices for their children, as well as a wide range of constraints they experienced. The school choices made by these mothers were shaped by their resources and their histories. Available economic capital influenced choices, as did the ways in which social and cultural capital was activated. For each of these mothers, school choice and responsible mothering were intertwined.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkages Grant [LP0669546]. Partners in the grant were Mission Australia and the then NSW Department of Communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Albury-Wodonga, Australia

    Sue Dockett & Bob Perry

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  1. Sue Dockett
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  2. Bob Perry
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Correspondence to Sue Dockett .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Albury-Wodonga, Australia

    Sue Dockett

  2. State Institute of Early Childhood Research (IFP), Munich, Germany

    Wilfried Griebel

  3. School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Albury-Wodonga, Australia

    Bob Perry

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Dockett, S., Perry, B. (2017). Primary School Choice and the ‘Good’ Mother: Balancing Complex Support Needs and Responsibility. In: Dockett, S., Griebel, W., Perry, B. (eds) Families and Transition to School. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58329-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58329-7_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58327-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58329-7

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