Suchergebnisse

Given the recent increase in allegations of child abuse in the Caribbean community, the influence of sociocultural factors on various aspects of behavior including childrearing practices needs to be examined. Evidently, cultural differences substantially add to the existing complexity of defining maltreatment, neglect or abuse. Recommendations for researchers and clinicians who work with Caribbean families are elucidated with respect to disciplinary practices. The focus of this article is to help clinicians not to erroneously diagnose a parent as abusive when he or she is, in the eyes of that culture, merely disciplining the child.

AbstractRecent years have seen Governments prioritise family as a mechanism for tackling social ills. More particularly, in the UK, bad parenting has been identified as a prominent causal factor in poverty and social disorder, with contemporary policy solutions focusing on regulating and controlling childrearing practices. Analysis of political rhetoric and policy initiatives reveals a class specific focus on disadvantaged or 'socially excluded' families as failing their children and society as a whole. Poor parents are viewed as reproducing a cycle of deprivation and anti‐social behaviour and are therefore targeted to receive state intervention. This paper presents a critical analysis of the new politics of parenting to challenge the notion that equity can be promoted at the level of the family. Drawing on qualitative research with marginalised mothers and fathers, it shows how parenting practices and values are grounded in social and economic realities and highlights the extent to which prevailing childrearing prescriptions are detached from the lives and values of those they are directed at.

AbstractDrawing on ethnographic research conducted at two ends of an intra‐Africa migration flow (Mali and the Republic of Congo), in this article I examine the role of childrearing practices in the maintenance of transnationalism. I consider different approaches to transnational childrearing by migrant parents and their reasons for adopting them, and delineate three common modes. The most widespread and socially validated approach is to send children home from Congo to their parents' places of origin, where child fostering is widespread, to be raised by relatives for long periods; this approach increases the durability of transnational ties. I use childrearing approaches as an analytical lens to demonstrate the complementarity of multiple forms of domestic organization, mobility and settlement in the inter‐generational production and transmission of durable transnational identities. By arguing for greater focus on phenomena such as transnational childrearing, I seek to promote a broader conceptualization of transnationalism.

This article provides an understanding of childhood welfare from a radical perspective, showing how power within the special education system affects the discourse of 'choice' for parents. The analysis unmasks the disciplinary power operating within the special education system and explores the manner in which such power affects choice for parents. In turn, the analysis suggests that although disciplinary power offers little sites for resistance, the actions of some parents in the exercise of choice are seen as a growing challenge to that power. It remains to be seen just how resistant the system will become in the face of such opposition.

A discussion of how recent discoveries in the fields of medicine, biology, & genetics may impact the modern concept of education. The new reproductive technologies present the possibility of far-reaching intervention into the biological nature of man. The "hidden curriculum" of the new technologies is examined, & the question is considered of whether "genetic improvement" prior to birth will become yet another parental duty. Modified AA