Middle-class parental engagement in pandemic times: Developing strategies and mobilizing capitals

Antony-Newman, M. , Niyozov, S. and Pashchenko, K. (2023) Middle-class parental engagement in pandemic times: Developing strategies and mobilizing capitals. British Journal of Sociology of Education, (doi: 10.1080/01425692.2023.2294687) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Despite the rhetoric of ‘we are all in this together’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, not all families experienced schooling disruption in 2020–2022 equally. Middle-class parents typically enjoy significant advantage over parents in working-class occupations. To illuminate class-based differences in parental engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, here we present data from interviews with 15 middle-class Canadian parents. We found that middle-class parents successfully mobilized their economic, social, and cultural capital to manage challenges they faced: lack of structure and routine, lack of communication with the school, perceived low quality of instruction and resources, student isolation during online learning, and parental stress about children’s schooling during the pandemic. The main implication of the study is that although middle-class parents in the study acknowledged their privilege more compared to prior research on middle-class parental engagement, ultimately, their individual solutions to pandemic challenges merely exacerbated existing social inequalities in education.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Antony-Newman, Dr Max
• Authors: Antony-Newman, M., Niyozov, S., and Pashchenko, K.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: British Journal of Sociology of Education
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0142-5692
• ISSN (Online): 1465-3346
• Published Online: 13 December 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in British Journal of Sociology of Education 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence