“Then it is crucial to get some external person with respectability to the meetings”:Mothering practices and collaboration with teachers and professionals to secure theirautistic children’s schooling and professional services – Bourdieusian class analysis

Abstract

In Iceland, social class is an understudied field of research in terms of social justice in education. The theoretical purpose of the research was to explore class disposition of mothers of children with learning disabilities in relation to their experience of schooling by using Pierre Bourdieu‘s theoretical framework. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital are used to explore how mothering practices and resources are shaped by their class position, as well as how the education field of compulsory schooling opens up possibilities to some while closing them to others. The practical purposes of this research were to explore parental experience of the school and professional services concerning the education of their autistic child, as well as communication with their child’s teachers and other professionals at school.

This research is a pilot study in preparation for a more extensive research project on Parental practices, choices and responsibilities within the Icelandic education field, designed and led by the first author, financed by The University of Iceland Research Fund and the Icelandic Equality Fund. In this paper the theoretical and methodological framework of the project is introduced and used to analyse a small dataset, collected for the MA-thesis of the second author, comprising a total of eight semi-structured interviews. The main interviewees were six mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, and supplementary interviews were taken with a project manager of inclusive education at the Reykjavík Municipality educational office and a worker from a grassroots consultancy centre (Icel. Sjónarhóll) for parents of children with special needs.