Is Your Child's Brain Potential Maximized?: Mothering in an Age of New Brain Research

Authors

  • Glenda Wall Wilfrid Laurier University

Keywords:

Brain growth and development, Child development, Child rearing, Child-centered parenting, Early childhood education, Mootherhood, Parenting

Abstract

Claims about the potential of early education and stimulation to enhance brain capacity have recently gained a prominent place in child rearing advice. This paper places the discourse that surrounds the new imperatives in its historical and sociological contexts and examine sits implications for the experience and social expectations of mothers. In this light, the connections to the trend of increasingly child-centred and intensive parenting are explored as is the way in which these current claims fit within a neoliberal rationality where individual self-management, self-enhancement, and personal responsibility are seen as key.

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Author Biography

Glenda Wall, Wilfrid Laurier University

Glenda Wall is an assistant professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, where she teaches family sociology. Her current research interests centre on motherhood, cultural representations, and moral regulation.

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Published

2004-04-01

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2004): Special Issue: Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work

Section

Original Research

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