`Class Acts': Educational Involvement and Psycho-Sociological Class Processes

Abstract

This article draws on the accounts of mothers of primary school children in Britain in order to explore the influence of social class in women's lives. It examines psycho-sociological class processes and their formative impact on female subjectivity through a focus on data from a study of mothers' involvement in their children's schooling. These processes become very apparent when mothers talk about their children's schooling, revealing emotive intimacies of class that impact on both their attitudes and their actions. The article concludes that we need to develop approaches in which psychological and sociological understandings are woven together to reveal the complex strands that make up class in contemporary society.