McGovern, Anne-Marie (2018) Time to stop blaming parents: A case study of parents’ and children’s experiences of family life and in marginalised communities with implications for parenting interventions, educational welfare policy and practice. Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

The inclusion of the voices of parents and children from marginalised communities is quite a departure from traditional rigid assumptions in parenting research. This study sought to explore parents' experience of family life and participation in the universal roll-out of Parents Plus Children's Programme (PPCP), as well as children's perspectives on how they navigate the different settings of home, school and community in a Dublin urban area of low socio-economic status (SES). Applying a community psychology perspective and the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) bio-ecological model, the primary research question posed was how can parents’ and children’s perspectives and experiences of family life and PPCP in marginalised communities inform formal educational welfare policy and practice through Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS). Employing a case study approach, qualitative research methods were used to gather data from seven parents (via semi-structured interviews) and eight children (via mosaic-arts approach). This study found that their ability to parent effectively was either supported, hindered or disrupted by people, community influences (e.g. crime) and situations (e.g. adequate housing), often outside of their control. While PPCP was a support to the majority of parents, where isolation and marginalisation was felt most profoundly in the community, PPCP couldn’t address the larger social issues impacting on parenting practices. For children, how their families were perceived in the school, especially Traveller families, influenced their school experiences. Compared to their settled peers, Traveller children stated that they did not like school, nor the school their parents, and that it would be one of the first places they would change in their community. The findings of this study has implications for how parenting interventions, educational welfare policy and practice, as well as all-of-government policy, can better support families in marginalised communities.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Keywords:	Time; stop; blaming parents; case study; parents’ and children’s experiences; family life; marginalised communities; implications; parenting interventions; educational welfare policy; practice;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	11197
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	09 Oct 2019 13:32
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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