How Do Working Mothers Engage in Children’s Education at Home?: Inequality and Dilemma in an “Educating Family” during Early Childhood

Abstract

Studies suggest that parentocracy is exacerbating working mothers’ responsibility for children’s education as well as social class discrepancy. This study examines how working mothers with preschool children perceive their education at home and how they share the responsibility with their husbands. Based on semi-structural interviews with 42 mothers from various educational backgrounds and occupations, the child-rearing of “educating families” diverged into four patterns, distinguished by the couple’s relationship as well as the logic behind child-rearing. The model suggests that the logic of child-rearing and also the ways in which the couples share educational responsibility are relevant to a mother’s working dilemma. It also implies that educational inequality in the home environment is already formed during early childhood through different approaches to child-rearing and a father’s educational involvement. These results call for policies and practices that provide support to families who have limited financial and relational resources for children’s educational opportunities. They also suggest the need to support a father’s engagement in children’s education and thus ease the burden of working mothers.