Every day in the United States, millions of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods are dropped off at a variety of early childcare settings and arrangements. When those settings are high quality, early childhood education can produce both short and long term benefits for this population, including increases in school achievement and in literacy attainment and decreases in grade retention, the likelihood of early dropout, and behavioral issues (August & Hakuta, 1997; Barnett, 1995; Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Entwisle & Alexander, 1993; Korenman, Miller, & Sjaastad, 1995; McLoyd, 1998; Wertheimer & Croan, 2003; Zill, 1999). Early childhood education, however, is neither a formalized nor mandatory educational level, which gives parents significant latitude in deciding when and where to enroll their children. Consequently, it is important to better understand the quality, availability, distribution, and use of non-parental childcare across different settings. A more nuanced perspective is also necessary because there is great variation in the types of and tendencies toward childcare enrollment along the lines of socioeconomic status, race, and geographical location. This research study presents the findings of a qualitative, interview-based study that explored what maternal primary caregivers were influenced by when they enrolled children of color in high-poverty urban childcare centers. Building upon the current literature, the study explores the ways structural, parental, and child-level factors intersected in the decision-making process and how choices continued to effect parents after initial enrollment decisions had been made. This study also addresses parental satisfaction levels. Through a series of interviews conducted with the maternal primary caregivers of children enrolled in one of three early childhood centers in a single metropolitan region, this study captures and describes childcare enrollment as a complex and nuanced process. The findings of the study speak to the nature of navigating and managing childcare decisions from the perspective of the parent. Specifically, the study found that networks of trust, maternal instincts, and lessons learned from past childcare experiences influenced the choices of the maternal primary caregivers interviewed. Educational value and children's futures were also important, as were logistics and cost. As the mothers in the study made their choices, they also negotiated structural, parental, and child factors. The literature supports these factors as influencing choice, but they have largely been examined in isolation. This study adds to the literature by describing how levels of factors intersected and overlapped with one another. More exploratory findings of the study support that maternal primary caregivers continued to manage their childcare choices long after enrollment and that childcare satisfaction is both subjective and nuanced. The experiences of the women who participated in this study shed light upon directions for future research and areas of need in terms of resources, information, and support. The mothers in this study made childcare choices based on their realties, using who or what they knew and how they felt. Further, the local governance where this study was conducted proved highly disjointed and participants showed little faith in the system. The greatest area of need, which would stand to most benefit all parents, is for meaningful increases in support, resources, and cohesion at the local level. / Urban Education

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation examines working women’s experiences with careers and childcare in South Korea. Korea is characterized by its ultra-low fertility rate, aging population, and high proportions of working women and those opting out of work after childbirth. Despite the government’s generous childcare policies and widespread help from child(ren)’s grandmothers, Korean mothers report substantial difficulties in pursuing their careers due to childcare responsibilities. Thus, this dissertation asks the following questions: 1) How do beliefs and norms about childcare influence Korean women’s career pursuits and childcare arrangements? 2) What factors influence Korean working mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits in the context of COVID-19? 3) How does grandmothers’ care help influence Korean working mothers’ careers and childcare arrangements? </p> <p><br></p> <p>To investigate these questions, I analyze three waves of longitudinal in-depth interview data (n=102) from women in Korea. The first wave was collected in-person in 2019 ­before the COVID-19 pandemic with 37 women. The second (n=32) was conducted in 2020, and the final (n=33) wave in 2021. Due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19, the second and final waves were conducted virtually using video calls. The semi-structured interviews asked questions about women’s experiences with their careers and childcare, and examined how their experiences have changed or remained the same since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the first qualitative studies to examine working mothers’ experiences with childcare pre-pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic (2020 and 2021).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Based on the findings, I develop the concept of “childcare ideologies”– defined as beliefs and norms about childcare. Korean women shared a diverse range of beliefs and norms about childcare encompassing family members like mothers, fathers, and grandparents, as well as non-family members like care facilities and the government. Because childcare is not a concern or responsibility of mothers alone, this dissertation encourages the sociological scholarship to conceptualize childcare more broadly, by including the discussions of political interests, social and cultural norms, and intergenerational familial care, among other relevant factors. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In addition, I document women’s experiences related to pursuing their careers and arranging grandmothers’ childcare help.  The findings show the influence of <em>gendered</em> childcare beliefs and norms on Korean mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits. Childcare beliefs that do not assume that mothers are primarily responsible for childcare motivated mothers to aspire to career success and pursue such aspirations. On the other hand, childcare beliefs that associate mothers with having primary childcare responsibility discouraged mothers from their career aspirations and pursuits. Furthermore, while I demonstrate Korean mothers’ heavy reliance on their children’s grandmothers for childcare help, I show that mothers preferred to receive childcare help from maternal grandmothers than from paternal grandmothers. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In analyzing these empirical findings, this dissertation contextualizes Korean mothers’ experiences related to childcare and career pursuits within the novel context of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, I employ a gendered life course framework to investigate how women’s family lives and careers have been affected when the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic and societal disruption, in addition to a health crisis. I conclude the dissertation with empirical implications and policy recommendation to better anticipate future health challenges and to assist working women and their families when these challenges emerge.</p>

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Very little is known about the psychological experiences related to childcare use among lowincome mothers in South Africa. In rural and semi-rural communities, where affordable and accessible childcare is almost non-existent, low-income mothers often have no alternative but to rely on their own mothers for childcare. Despite strong theoretically based indications that these particular childcare arrangements are psychologically complex, research on this topic is almost completely lacking. This dissertation sets out to investigate (a) how childcare arrangements (including multigenerational childcare) manifest in one particular low-income South African community, and (b) how low-income South African mothers experienced the use of childcare psychologically. This study was set in a poor, semi-rural, so-called Coloured community in the Western Cape, South Africa. Two open-ended, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants. The transcribed interviews were analysed using constructivist grounded theory and case studies in a sequential data analysis approach. Theoretically, this study was informed by postmodernism, social constructionism, feminism and psychoanalytic theory. The data analysis resulted in a detailed documentation of the range of childcare arrangements utilised by the participants. It further showed that contextual, relational and personal constraints made it impossible for the participants to mother and care for their children as they wanted to. The participants had to compromise on their childcare ideals and this created a range of psychological and emotional sequelae. In order to cope with these, the participants resorted to both conscious and unconscious coping mechanisms and processes. The findings indicated that the use of multigenerational childcare was psychologically complex, as mother-daughter relationships consciously and unconsciously impacted on childcare decision-making, the emotional and psychological repercussions and the participants’ coping therewith. The absence of men and fathers in the provision of childcare concurred with international findings on the gendered nature of childcare. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that mothering and childcare are indeed issues of concern to low-income mothers. It is also a subject that warrants further investigation in the discipline of psychology. Recommendations in this regard are included and highlight the need to use theoretical frameworks and research methods that are sensitive to the multilayered, complex psychological experiences of motherhood and childcare among low-income women. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Baie min is bekend oor die sielkundige ervarings wat verband hou met kindersorg onder laeinkomste moeders in Suid-Afrika. In landelike en semi-landelike gebiede waar bekostigbare en toeganklike kindersorg feitlik niebestaande is, het lae-inkomstemoeders dikwels geen ander keuse as om op hul eie moeders staat te maak vir kindersorg nie. Ten spyte van sterk teoreties gebaseerde aanduidings dat hierdie spesifieke kindersorgreëlings sielkundig kompleks is, ontbreek navorsing oor hierdie onderwerp feitlik heeltemal. Hierdie proefskrif ondersoek (a) hoe kindersorgreëlings (met inbegrip van multigeneratiewe kindersorg) manifesteer in een spesifieke Suid-Afrikaanse lae-inkomstegemeenskap en (b) hoe laeinkomste Suid-Afrikaanse moeders die gebruik van kindersorg sielkundig beleef. Die studie is in ’n behoeftige, semi-landelike, sogenaamde bruin gemeenskap in die Wes- Kaap geplaas. Twee oop, diepgaande onderhoude is met agt deelnemers gevoer. Die getranskribeerde onderhoude is geanaliseer met gebruikmaking van konstruktivisties gegronde teorie en gevallestudies volgens ’n sekwensiële data-ontledingsbenadering. Teoreties is hierdie studie beïnvloed deur postmodernisme, sosiale konstruksionisme, feminisme en psigo-analitiese teorie. Die data-ontleding het gelei tot ’n gedetailleerde dokumentasie van die omvang van kindersorgreëlings wat deur die deelnemers gebruik is. Dit het verder gewys dat kontekstuele, relasionele en persoonlike beperkings dit vir die deelnemers onmoontlik gemaak het om hul kinders te bemoeder en te versorg soos hulle graag wou. Die deelnemers moes hul kindersorgideale kompromitteer en dit het ’n reeks sielkundige en emosionele gevolge geskep. Ten einde dit te hanteer, het die deelnemers gebruik gemaak van sowel bewuste as onbewuste hanteringsmeganismes en -prosesse. Die bevindinge het aangedui dat die gebruik van multigeneratiewe kindersorg sielkundig kompleks was, aangesien moeder-dogter verhoudings bewustelik en onbewustelik ’n uitwerking gehad het op kindersorgbesluite, die emosionele en sielkundige belewing daarvan, en die deelnemers se hantering daarvan. Die afwesigheid van mans en vaders in die voorsiening van kindersorg het ooreengestem met internasionale bevindinge oor die gender-gebaseerde aard van kindersorg. Gebaseer op die bevindinge van hierdie studie kan tot die slotsom gekom word dat moedersorg en kindersorg inderdaad kwessies van belang onder lae-inkomstemoeders is. Dit is ook ’n onderwerp wat verdere navorsing in die sielkunde vakgebied regverdig. Aanbevelings in hierdie verband word ingesluit en vestig die aandag op die behoefte om teoretiese raamwerke en navorsingsmetodes te gebruik wat sensitief is ten opsigte van die veelvlakkige, komplekse sielkundige ervarings van moederskap en kindersorg onder laeinkomstevroue.

Brian Jackson rose from a working-class background, through a scholarship to Huddersfield College, to gain a first in English at Cambridge. Though now largely forgotten, his was one of the most innovative voices to influence the major changes in educational thought and practice which occurred during the 1960s and early '70s. This thesis examines his achievements and attempts to explain his failure, ultimately, to find a role for himself. Brian Jackson's main talent was to give substance to ideas, but once a thing was running he seems to have lost interest, anxious for a new challenge. In 1962 he published, with Dennis Marsden, Education and the Working Class: a seminal influence on the acceptance of comprehensive education by the Left. He went on to become director of the Advisory Centre for Education [1962-1974] which he built into a powerful lobbying force, using the media to good effect. A notable success was his creation of the Universities Clearing House scheme in conjunction with the Sunday Times. In 1963 he founded the National Extension College in Cambridge as a prototype for the Open University, pioneering all the new techniques the OU was to use subsequently. He became increasingly concerned with pre-school care and founded the National Children's Centre in Huddersfield in 1975, which spawned a TV Series for childminders; Other People's Children. In 1978 he pioneered the Childcare Switchboard, a forerunner of Childline, on Radio Nottingham, which led to his founding Contact Inc. in Australia in 1979. Jackson wrote innumerable articles and books, including Streaming and Childminder, on education and childcare. From 1975 he repeatedly called for a Minister for Children, a position he possibly craved, but sadly, as the economic climate hardened in the late 1970s, his career tailed off, his drinking increased, and he died, unemployed and virtually unemployable, on a 'Fun Run' for the NCC in Huddersfield, aged 50. His considerable talents were probably spread too widely for his own good and his status as a 'loose cannon' prevented him from pursuing a more formal, and profitable, career

Faculty of Humanities School of Language and literature 0005333p PHP@worldonline.co.za / This research report consists of two parts: a theoretical introduction and a creative project. In the theoretical introduction I have examined various pregnancy and child-care manuals together with popular literature in an attempt to explore some of the representations of motherhood. The areas I touched on include: pregnancy, labour pain, natural birth, breastfeeding, postnatal depression, working mothers and child care. The creative project incorporates all these different facets of motherhood and consists of two chapters of a novel written in the popular form referred to as “chick lit”.

A vast literature has identified the importance of childcare for understanding cross-national variation in women’s employment, and has particularly emphasised the role of the state in ensuring the delivery of services. This thesis explores variation within market-based childcare systems in order to understand how systems with less state provision may support or constrain maternal employment. The thesis argues that understanding whether childcare markets ‘work’ or not in supporting maternal employment requires a deep understanding of the interplay between market and state, as the specific policy approach taken can shape the structure of the market in profoundly different ways. This issue is explored via comparative case studies of the United States and the United Kingdom, two countries known for their market-based approach to childcare, but with stark and persistent differences in maternal employment behaviour, especially working time. Drawing on a mix of qualitative (policy documents) and quantitative (national statistics) data, the US and UK systems are compared along a series of dimensions comprising the two key components of the market-based system: the structure of market provision and the policy approach. The similarities and differences of these systems are analysed through the lens of the characteristics of services known to be important for the use of care for employment purposes: availability, cost and quality. The United States and United Kingdom have generally similar childcare systems when compared to other countries which rely more heavily on the state or the family to ensure childcare provision, which is in line with their common characterisation as liberal welfare regimes. However, there are important differences in the structure of their childcare markets which affect their ability to support maternal employment: for example, the US market poses fewer affordability constraints for maternal employment given the availability of relatively low cost care provision (albeit of questionable quality); the UK market in contrast provides care at higher cost, although this is likely of better quality. This variation in market provision is shaped by differences in the policy approach taken by each country: the US approach is primarily designed to soften the rougher edges of the market in what is otherwise considered a private sphere; in contrast the UK approach actively attempts to shape the childcare market into a system in line with policy goals. The consequence of this is that the US approach does not prevent a wide range of market provision from forming to cater to diverse tastes and budgets, but this necessarily includes a substantial degree of lower quality care. The UK approach more actively constrains the types of provision which are available, which on the one hand reduces supply and contributes to higher cost provision, but also sets higher standards for care provision. Together these findings suggest that understanding how market-based care systems do or do not support maternal employment requires not only an appreciation of the broader institutional context in which they are situated, but also the intended and unintended ways that policy-making can shape their structure.

This study explored the low retention rates of childcare workers at a military child development center in the northeast United States. The purpose of this case study was to explore the work experiences of childcare employees during their first year of employment at a child development center to discover the factors that influenced their decision to resign. The conceptual framework that guided this study was a 2-factor approach of motivator and hygiene factors associated with experiences and perceptions. Transcripts from interviews with 15 current and prior childcare workers and management team members were coded, triangulated, and thematically analyzed. The themes developed from the interview data revealed key factors that contributed to childcare workers' positive and negative work experiences, such as pay and benefits, professional development and training requirements, and lack of support for novice childcare workers. The results of this study led to a position paper recommending that stakeholders implement a 3-day mentoring program to address the issue of resignation among first-year childcare workers. The mentoring program could lead to social change by increasing positive work experiences, knowledge base of first-year childcare workers, and worker retention rates at military child development centers.

<p><font face="Times-Roman"> <p align="left">According to the findings of this study, childcare workers caring for HIV-positive children working in a residential care setting, have similar experiences and challenges to nurses, community-based caregivers and primary caregivers, such as coping with loss and contagion fear. Nonetheless, caring for HIV-positive children poses unique challenges for the caregiver, calling for flexibility and situation-dependent coping strategies.</p> </font></p>

<p><font face="Times-Roman"> <p align="left">According to the findings of this study, childcare workers caring for HIV-positive children working in a residential care setting, have similar experiences and challenges to nurses, community-based caregivers and primary caregivers, such as coping with loss and contagion fear. Nonetheless, caring for HIV-positive children poses unique challenges for the caregiver, calling for flexibility and situation-dependent coping strategies.</p> </font></p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University