Parenting in an Unequal Society

Abstract

Socio-economic and class differences are enacted in families and schools and children’s childhoods differ along social class lines. The home lives of children are unequal and this inequality is translated into educational inequality, a part of larger systemic patterns of inequality that persist across generations. The interplay between social class, parenting, education and social policy has had an interesting trajectory in the United Kingdom. In the 1960s, debates on the influence of social class on education raised awareness of unequal school success. Then the public discourse moved on to accountability in the 1970s and marketisation during the Thatcher years in the 1980s, performativity and school improvement during the Blair years to parenting and early intervention at the start of the 21st century (Bridges, 2010). Partnership, as a theme, has run through these policy trends with its focus shifting from schools and teachers to parents (conceived as edu-parents) to tackle unequal school success. To understand the interplay of social class and parenting, however, we should consider the wider cultural and social trends and the changing face of parenting, poverty and public policy in Western societies.