Global Childhoods Interdisciplinary Webinar Series 2023 - hosted by The University of Nottingham Global Childhoods Research Group
The Global Childhoods Research Group (GCRG) is an interdisciplinary group that brings together academic researchers, teacher educators, and postgraduate students to explore diverse constructions and experiences of childhoods (birth to 18) across the globe. In 2023, GCRG is hosting four interdisciplinary webinars to showcase our members’ and partners’ work on childhood studies; as well as to engage international audience in debates and discussions around issues concerning different aspects of global childhoods across disciplines.
Chair: Dr Yuwei Xu, School of Education, University of Nottingham
Programme
1. The changing discourses of fathering and fatherhood in Australia
Dr Laetitia Coles, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Australia
Abstract
In this presentation I will share findings from three separate studies that examine different aspects of fathering and fatherhood. Fatherhood is experiencing a cultural shift regarding expectations for caregiving. Fathers both want and are required to be more actively engaged in their children’s lives than those of previous generations, and most fathers in English-speaking OECD countries such as Australia, the US, and the UK are no longer the sole breadwinner within the household. Yet, adhering to an “involved father” ideal contradicts the ideal breadwinner norm and can create tensions for fathers. Caregiving may be made visible when requesting to alter work hours or work patterns, but subverts the work-devotion schema, and disrupts dominant discourses and expectations regarding masculinity and the ideal breadwinner norm. In this presentation, I employ Karla Elliott’s (2020) theorisation of ‘centres’ and ‘margins’ and ‘closed’ and ‘open’ masculinities, to conceptualise the ways in which some fathers who occupy the hegemonic ‘centre’ have the agency to adopt caregiving practices and to draw upon flexibility to respond to caregiving requirements, aligning with the open margin. However, this is not the case for all fathers who do not have full access to the privileges of the hegemonic centre. For these fathers, caregiving that is ‘too disruptive’ to the dominant discourse positions some fathers as subversive and within the margins, and can lead to negative professional and economic consequences for fathers and their families.
Biography
Dr Laetitia Coles is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow within the Science of Learning Lab at the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland. Dr Coles is a mixed-methods researcher, whose work focuses on the intersections of gender, work, and care across two distinct settings: (1) within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) setting; and (2) within the family. Across these two settings, Dr Coles' research examines the ways in which gender, work and family policy, and work-place practices, frame concepts of care, underpin gendered labour supply within the ECEC setting, and underpin and inform the decisions families make with regards to engagement in paid and unpaid labour. In addition to this, Dr Coles examines best practices for embedding neuroscience into policy and support uptake within early years workforces, and has a passion for improving the working conditions of those who are caring for our youngest members of society. Dr Coles completed her PhD in Sociology in 2020, looking at the factors underpinning engagement with children and caregiving, particularly amongst fathers who work long hours.
2. Decolonizing parenting research: Examples of research in China
Dr Lixian Cui, Psychology, New York University Shanghai, China
Abstract
It is widely known that psychological research has been dominated by the US and Western European countries. The vast majority of empirical findings are based on a small portion of the world population, i.e., the Western, Educated, Industrious, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) populations. Parenting research has also been dominated by the Western world. The majority parenting theories, models, and paradigms are US- or Western-centered. Chinese parenting has traditionally perceived as less optimal (e.g., authoritarian, controlling, harsh, tiger mothering or eagle fathering). In this presentation, I will discuss some examples of dominant discourses of parenthood and show some examples of reflecting on the current agenda in parenting research in the Majority World and doing grounded research in parenting in China. For example, whether certain parenting is adaptive is highly context dependent. From a developmental asset perspective, it is important to shift to identify positive practices in parenting.
Biography
Dr Lixian Cui is Assistant Professor at NYU Shanghai, China, Global Network Assistant Professor at New York University. Prior to NYU Shanghai, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cui’s research focuses on child and adolescent social and emotional development in various contexts, with a focus on emotion socialization in family, school, peer, and cultural contexts. His work has appeared in scientific journals such as Biological Psychology, Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Development and Psychopathology, Developmental Psychobiology, Emotion, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Journal of Family Psychology, and Parenting: Science and Practice.
3. Reframing the ‘mothers-as-gatekeepers’ discourse: Understanding UK mothers’ education care work
Dr Rachel Lehner-Mear, School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK
Abstract
According to established ideas, mothers ‘gatekeep’ the mothering arena (Pedersen, 2012), including their child’s education. This is said to be particularly true of middle-class mothers (Lareau, 1989), who apparently gatekeep to claim a ‘good mother’ status (Landeros, 2011). Equally, fathers use the mothers-as-gatekeepers narrative to explain their lower educational involvement (Gottzén, 2010). Theorising the care work around education using Lynch and Lyons’ (2008) definition of care as ‘a moral imperative on women’, provided a lens to explore mothers’ constructions of their educational support, which challenges the simplicity of the gatekeeper discourse, using primary school homework as an example. I will discuss why mothers claim the homework support role and manage the homework arena and how they agentially construct homework, illustrating that this creates a form of education care work which centralises their position. Highlighting that mothers enact care through control of the educational sphere, suggests maternal involvement actions should be understood as education care work, thus nuancing and reframing the notion of maternal gatekeeping.
Biography
Dr Lehner-Mear is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, School of Education, currently working on several projects related to childhood, gender, and parenting. She has published on parental involvement, primary homework, and the ethics of online methodologies. Her research interests include mothering, parental engagement, primary education, and gendered practices and embodiments. The central concept connecting her work is relationality. Rachel has a background in primary teaching and further education.