Hazel R. Wright

Choosing to compromise: women studying childcare

Reporting on a study of mature women training to work in childcare, this article demonstrates how some women choose to be part-time mothers, workers and students, wanting ‘the best of both worlds’. It presents a theory of integrated lives that contrasts with customary deficit models and shows how a series of reciprocal links bind the womens different roles together, introducing an adaptation of Cosers theory of greedy institutions to demonstrate how this is an inherently stable position. Whilst the theory can stand alone, it is usefully recast as a localised example of a capability set as it frames the co-realisable choices open to the women. Making further links with Amartya Sens capability approach, it is suggested that we should encourage governmental interventions that enable individual choice and support those women who want to integrate their lives alongside those who seek parity in the public sphere.

In search of stability: women studying childcare in an English further education college

This paper demonstrates how women who study childcare achieve congruence in their lives. Rather than simply juggling the needs of family, work and study in order to escape the domestic sphere, they choose to minimise dissonance, finding that parenting children, working with children and studying children creates a stable framework with reciprocal rather than conflictual links. The framework is captured as a model of ‘integrated lives’ and, drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, further conceptualised as an example of a capability set for childcare students. The pattern of drifting into childcare, representing the students’ choices, is made visible through the creation of a set of occupational typologies. Qualitative empirical evidence is used to explore the educational and broader social implications of integrating lives, and how this congruence encourages the uptake of new ideas as learning is multiply relevant. However, shortage of time causes students to modify their approach to learning, causing many who espouse liberal values to favour knowledge transmission over more demanding styles, attracted to the former’s apparent efficiency. Time constraints also encourage a retrospective acceptance of criterion-based assessment because fragmented knowledge is more easily manipulated when study patterns are sporadic and college work confined to those moments free from other commitments. The findings are discussed in relation to concerns that full-time students now need to undertake part-time work and introduce some interpretive detail to this debate.

Childcare, Children and Capability.

Empirical research focused on women studying childcare in an English further education college found the participants strangely contented despite demanding lifestyles. They were intent on integrating their family, work and educational commitments rather than actively seeking future gain, an understanding that led to the development of an original model of integrated lives, later recast as an example of a capability set. This paper describes how Sen’s capability approach was customized to make further sense of the empirical findings, and, in particular, how common interview themes were developed into capability indicators and grouped into capability chains to enable comparison between otherwise disparate narrative accounts. The women’s biographies emphasize the importance of fostering early capability in young children and reveal how, frequently, this is overlooked. The paper argues that educational policy should accord people the freedom to choose their own lives before reiterating how the capability approach can support such choices.

Questioning the relations between biography, theory and power in biographical teaching methods: a dialogue

Abstract This paper is structured around a dialogue between Hazel Wright, who is an experienced user and advocate of biographical teaching methods, and Paul Ashwin, who has some doubts about their benefits. A statement from Wright about the potential of biographical teaching methods is countered by Ashwin, who poses three challenges related to biographical teaching methods: the forms of biography that are legitimate; students’ relations to theory; and the impact of power relations. Wright responds to these by drawing on specific teaching—learning moments and the paper closes with an invitation to the reader to decide their position on the potential benefits and limitations of biographical teaching.

From individual choice to social good

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how individual choice, and the facilitation of individual choices, can be of benefit to society. To do this it selects evidence from a much broader research project that set out to study the student experience of a group of 33 women training to work in childcare (selected from a cohort of 150).Design/methodology/approach – The project employed an emergent methodology, as the researcher sought to draw out the student voice. Psychosocial interviews created detailed narratives that were analysed individually, thematically and holistically to support original theorization that was later linked to Sens Capability Approach.Findings – In terms of this paper, the significant finding was that the pursuit of individual goals can create public good. Individual actions can lead to unplanned social payback.Social implications – In revealing some of the mechanisms that promote social cohesion and social capital development the research supports people‐centred polic...

Using biographical approaches to explore student views on learning and teaching

Abstract After a brief historical overview, this paper considers key challenges that arise when biographical approaches are used to explore education. It focuses on a specific context: a doctoral study of mature women studying to work in childcare that developed into a much broader analysis of their ‘integrated lives’. This is an account of the students’ views on learning and teaching that also draws attention to the ways that biographical strategies made visible such views. It reveals the holistic possibilities of biographical interpretation and demonstrates how its inherent flexibility enables the researcher to address issues that really matter to people.