ABSTRACT

Through a comparative analysis of policy texts from UN organisations and scholarly work since the 1990s this paper examines how mothers are portrayed in simplistic terms, as educated thus beneficial for their daughters’ schooling, or deprived of education causing detriment to their daughters’ future prospects. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with mothers from rural Pakistan, these global comparisons are brought into conversation with local narratives showing how mothers’ aspirations facilitate daughters’ educational opportunities. It is argued that mothers’ subjectivities have a potential to inform global policy discourses for investigating the aspirational and transformational potential of mothers in contexts of material and social constraint. The paper proposes an informed approach to educational research and policy making which seeks to understand the processes surrounding mothers’ support for their daughters’ education.

摘要

通过对 20 世纪 90 年代以来联合国组织的政策文本和学术著作的比较分析，本文探讨了母亲是如何被简单化地描述的，即母亲受过教育有利于女儿的上学，或者被剥夺教育会损害女儿的未来前景。根据对巴基斯坦农村地区母亲的半结构化访谈，这些全球比较与当地叙述进行对话，显示母亲的愿望如何促进女儿的教育机会。有人认为，母亲的主观性有可能为全球政策话语提供信息，以调查物质和社会约束背景下母亲的愿望和变革潜力。