‘You feel a bit lost’: a case study interpreting white, working-class mothers’ engagement through habitus

Abstract

Bourdieu argued that class-based inequalities influenced educational outcomes and this paper illustrates the relevance of Bourdieu’s concepts in understanding one specific community. A wider study by the authors used the concept of habitus to identify factors which impacted on the participants—predominantly white working-class mothers’—perceptions of their engagement with schools. This paper provides two selected case study examples from the wider study which describes the ways these mothers interpret different habitus in relation to education and discusses how habitus can inform understandings of different parental perceptions towards education and how this affects engagement. Schools can use this insight to ensure that parents from such backgrounds feel better able to engage with their children’s education. Schools use this insight to inform to ensure that parents from such backgrounds feel able to engage with their children’s education, both at home and in school.