THE GOOD MOTHER: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LITERACY ADVICE TO MOTHERS IN THE 20TH CENTURY by Suzanne Smythe B.A. (Hons.), McGill University, Montréal, Canada 1989 M. Ed., University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1996 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Language and Literacy Education) University of British Columbia May, 2006 © Suzanne Smythe, 2006 AB STRACT Often presented as a means of communicating the latest in scientific research to parents, literacy advice is a key strategy used by educational institutions to address persistent gaps in literacy achievement across socio-economic groups. The rationale for creating and disseminating literacy advice is that if families adhere to it, their children will become literate, succeed in school, and become productive members of society. Drawing on Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, feminist theories, and the concept of mothering and literacy as situated practices, the study explores literacy advice to parents as a gendered practice of power rather than an institutional truth. Based on the analysis of over three hundred literacy advice texts published in Britain and North America since the Nineteenth Century, the study demonstrated that contemporary literacy advice to parents is deeply rooted in the cultural ideal of the “good mother.” Discourses of domestic pedagogy, intensive mothering, and the “normal” family normalize middle class domesticity and the ideal of the good mother as essential to children’s literacy acquisition and academic success. The findings suggest that reliance upon women’s domestic literacy work to promote children’s academic success not only reproduces gender inequalities, but has implications for equity in literacy learning opportunities among diversely situated children and families. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . ii Table of Contents iii List of Tables vii Acknowledgements Viii Chapter I: Literacy Advice to Mothers in the Age of Accountability 1 The context for this study 3 Aims of the study 8 Research questions and methods 10 Conceptual framework 11 Literacy and mothering as socially-situated practices 11 Literacy advice, policy, and research: Inter-textual relationships 13 Data sources 14 Significance of the study 16 Scope and limitations 19 Organization of the thesis 19 Chapter II: Researching literacy and mothering as discourse: conceptual framework and methods 22 Critical discourse analysis 22 A history of the present: Genealogical approaches to analyzing literacy advice discourses 24 The discursive formation 25 Discursive strategies 27 Discursive effects 27 Analytic lenses 28 Post-structural feminism 28 Mothering and literacy as socially-situated practices 31 Analytic tools 34 Intertextuality 35 Multi-vocality 36 Comparison 37 Substitution: from parent to mother 38 Social location and reading identities 39 111 Table 1. Analytic Framework: Concepts of Discourse Analysis, Analytic Lenses and Analytic Tools 42 Table 1 (continued). Analytic Framework: Concepts of Discourse Analysis, Analytic Lenses and Analytic Tools 43 A genealogical approach to literacy advice to mothers: steps in analysis 44 Select your topic 44 Getting to know the data 45 Conclusion 51 Chapter III: Through a literacy lens: Feminist and critical perspectives on mothering and literacy Child-raising advice to mothers: insights into mothering discourses 53 The feminization of literacy: mothering, schooling, and pedagogy 61 Mothers and schools 61 Literacy in women’s lives: social practice perspectives 74 Towards a discursive framework for analyzing literacy advice to mothers 79 Intensive mothering 80 Domestic pedagogy 81 The normal family 81 Table 2. A Discursive Framework for the Analysis of Literacy Advice 83 Conclusion 84 Chapter IV: Mothering discourses in literacy advice to Victorian and Edwardian mothers 86 Table 3: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Victorian and Edwardian Mothers 92 Part One: Literacy advice to early Victorian mothers 93 Mothers as domestic literacy managers in the early to middle Nineteenth Century 96 The moral structuring of literacy: Teaching children to read and write 106 Part Two: The angel in the house and school: New domestic literacy roles for mothers .... 112 Domestic literacy management in the middle to late Nineteenth Century 112 The moral structuring of literacy: Advice for teaching children to read in the late Nineteenth Century 120 Dangerous practices: Women’s and children’s literacy in the later Nineteenth Century 125 Conclusions: literacy advice and mothering discourses in nineteenth-century advice texts 129 Chapter V: Why can’t Johnny read9 135 Table 4: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers, 1945—1968 140 iv Domestic literacy management 1929 to 1945 142 Domestic literacy management in the 1 950s and I 960s 150 Preserving a “reading culture” 151 Parental involvement in schools 154 Teaching children to read 158 Regulating mothers’ and children’s literacy practices 166 Conclusion 178 Chapter VI: From extensive services to the read-aloud solution: Discontinuities and continuities in literacy advice in the 1 970s and 1 980s 181 Table 5: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers 1968—1 988 184 Domestic literacy management in the 1 970s and 1 980s 185 Invisible supporters of “natural learning” 185 Identical interests: mothers as literacy co-learners 197 Domestic literacy work as nation-building: Mothering for a new knowledge economy 208 Conclusion 216 Chapter VII: bodies, brains and bake sales: literacy advice 1988—2002 219 Table 6: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers, 1988—2003 223 Perfect literacies: Mothers as literacy models and monitors 227 “Read while you breastfeed”: Mothering as embodied literacy practice 238 Work your way out of poverty: Domestic literacy as family power 249 Mothering the early brain: Literacy as nurturing baby care 256 Conclusions 261 Chapter VIII: Discussion 263 Research Methods and Limitations 267 Summary of findings 275 What discursive formations are associated with the ‘mother-as-teacher-of literacy’? .275 What discourse strategies are associated with the normalization of the ‘mother-as- teacher of literacy’ over time9 276 What forms of literacy and of mothering are excluded within mothering discourses?.283 Who benefits from mothering and literacy advice discourses9 288 Literacy advice to mothers: Themes for further research 288 Moving beyond mothering discourses in literacy advice 291 Implications for literacy research and practice 291 Critical awareness: How literacy research contributes to the reproduction of mothering discourses 292 v Attend to the situated experiences of mothering as a basis for policy making and literacy research 294 The limits of instruction to effect social change 295 Conclusion 296 BIBLIOGRAPHY 300 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Analytic Framework: Concepts of Discourse Analysis, Analytic Lenses and Analytic Tools 42 Table 2: A Discursive Framework for the Analysis of Literacy Advice 83 Table 3: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Victorian and Edwardian Mothers 92 Table 4: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers 1945-1968 140 Table 5: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers 1968—1988 182 Table 6: Discourses and Themes in Literacy Advice to Mothers 1988—2003 221 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Jim Anderson, whose support, encouragement and advice during the long and winding roads of study, research and writing, provided me with confidence that I had something to say, and would “get there one day.” My thesis committee members, Dr. Jean Barman, Dr. Mona Gleason and Dr. Theresa Rogers provided insightful, challenging but always encouraging feedback and direction; I deeply appreciate the approaches to scholarship and the love and respect for ideas they modeled. Anne Eastham, Graduate Student Secretary, in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC, helped me navigate bureaucracy and still feel like a human being. For her support, and the support of the Department of Language and Literacy Education in providing me with diverse and challenging scholarly experiences along the way, I am very thankful. Anneke van Enk, Janet Isserlis and Lyndsay Moffat provided feedback on earlier drafts of parts of this manuscript, enriching it with their unique perspectives on the contradictory place of mothering and motherhood in our everyday lives. Maureen Kendrick, Lyndsay Moffat and Theresa Rogers offered me the invaluable gift of a quiet place to work. The RiPAL-BC collective, comprising Betsy Alkenbrack, Sandy Middleton, Marina Niks and Bonnie Soroke helped me to remember at critical moments why I love research and literacy work. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded my doctoral studies, and in collaboration with the National Literacy Secretariat valued and promoted literacy research across Canada. Jenny Horsman generously shared her time and inspired me to explore the “everydayness” of my mothering experiences in my research. Jan Hare was a friend throughout, viii and this thesis took shape through the years of our children’s friendship, and our own; through many a dinner conversation, child care swap and run through the forest. My parents, Don and Joan Smythe, have always supported their children in whatever path they chose and this was no exception. Their moral support, pride and loving care of their grandchildren over