- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
- 2-3 annotations.
Judy:
I was struggling to find sources that revolved around working class parents struggling to meet the criteria of “good parenting.” But Tina Lee’s article discusses how case workers often hold parents to standards almost impossible for working–class and poor parents to meet. In some cases, parents can be accused of neglect for providing inadequate childcare or housing even when they cannot afford anything better. I thought this is what you meant by finding sources that show how working class parents struggle to meet the standards of “good parenting”. The other article I found was Tiffani Chin’s argues that social-class differences in the quality and quantity of children’s activities do not stem largely from fundamental differences in parents’ desires to help children develop their skills and talents but these differences stem from parent’s differential access to wide range of resources like money. I thought this article could add-on to my overall goal of demonstrating how socioeconomic status greatly affects parents ability to reach the standards of “good parenting” that is heavily in CPS as a tool to assess whether parents are raising their children the “right” way. Lee’s article made me start thinking about how the state does not help these families financially in order to not have them removed. In other words, CPS removes children for not having adequate living situation due to financial circumstances. So rather than helping these families they just take the children away. I don’t know if I should be thinking about this issue for my paper or if this issue should be included in my conclusion. I guess I started thinking about how CPS evaluates “good versus bad” parenting, which sometimes makes them miss how it could be resolved if these parents were getting assistance from the state. In other words, these working class families would not fail to meet the “good parenting” criteria if they had a better financial situation.
It took me a long time to find these articles, I ended up searching through the endnotes of other courses. Then, I kind of search using key words like “working class parents/mothers” but I am really worried I am not going to have enough to write in 20 pages.
Also, should I be looking up sources on neoliberalism? You mention I could use the Simpsons show as a vignette in my intro but I also mentioned to you in office hours last week I was watching the movie bad moms which was really helpful in showing how the rich white married mom was the ideal mother that participated in the PTA at the school which other mothers aspired to be, compared to the working class single mother that was portrayed as failing. I am not sure how I would incorporate this into my paper but I was wondering if you could help me with that.
Tiffani Chin and Meredith Phillips. Social Reproduction and Child-rearing Practices: Social Class, Children’s Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap. University of California, Los Angeles. 2004
Tina Lee. Catching a Case: Inequality and fear in New York City’s child welfare system. 2016
Lopez’s Comments:
Judy, keep my comments brief because we met last week to discuss the progress of your project. At this point you’re working with a lot of different directions. Make sure to limit what it is that you will examine methodologically. Lastly, remember that neoliberal parenting is an analytical concept that we been thinking through. It is important that you look for the practices that are put in place as models that refer to good and bad parenting. From this analytical bifurcation you will be able to see how parents are perceived as by social workers. Well done!