Unpacking mothers’ conceptions of education and learning

• In Event: Understanding Social Responsibility towards Teaching and Learning, Part 1: The role of Community Actors.

Proposal

Research shows that the ways in which parents perceive of and think about education have important connections to how they contribute to children’s schooling and learning. Parental involvement and engagement with schools is understood as being critical for building supportive environments that help children learn and thrive. However, relatively little is known about how mothers in global south, rural contexts understand the concept of “learning”; how they think about their own role and ability to shape their children’s learning outcomes; and importantly how their own backgrounds and contexts relate to these conceptions.

This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting insights based on 34 interviews and focus group discussions conducted with mothers in four purposively sampled villages in Sitapur district, India. Most sampled mothers in this study are between 25-35 years, uneducated and from the Schedule Caste background (a traditionally disempowered social category). Embedded within a mixed methods evaluation of a program aiming to improve school-community engagement, these interviews produce rich narratives on how these mothers understand education and learning, how their backgrounds shape these perceptions and importantly, the different mechanisms through which they contribute to their children’s schooling and learning.

Reflecting on personal hardships faced, mothers associate education with improved prospects for their children, including future jobs and marriage. Most interesting, however, are the connections mothers make between the ability to read, write and do arithmetic with greater independence and mobility, for instance, being able to read and fill documents in government offices such as banks, read signboards and travel unescorted, without help or fear. These interviews also shed light on the myriad ways in which children’s education is organised within households, ranging from decisions around school choice, study-routines and the use of disciplinary measures.

These discussions reveal that mothers tend to dismiss or underestimate their own ability to shape children’s learning, perceiving the lack of formal education as a major disadvantage. Such perceptions along with responsibilities of house and farm work and socio-cultural norms often mean that mothers do not directly engage with teachers, unless filling in for male or older members of the family. Even so, mothers in this study discussed their children’s learning in a variety of ways, ranging from more rote-based conceptions like recitation of multiplication tables to a more nuanced understanding of children’s foundational learning in reading and numeracy. Mothers derive these conceptions from a range of sources, including observation of their children’s daily routines, the ease or difficulty with which children can read a story or complete schoolwork.
In discussing these themes, we highlight both the ways in which mothers conceive of education and ‘learning’, as well as the perceived and actual limitations they face in actively engaging with their child’s education. By recognizing these issues, policies and programs can help centre the role of mothers and families in children’s education, helping to build and strengthen beliefs and practices that can help children achieve better learning.

Authors

• Ankita Jha, ASER Centre

• Poorva Shekher, ASER Centre

• Purnima Ramanujan, ASER Centre

• Suman Bhattacharjea, ASER Centre