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Working-class lesbian parents' emotional engagement with their children's education: Intersections of class and sexuality
Catherine Ann Nixon Sexualities 2011 14: 79 DOI: 10.1177/1363460710390564 The online version of this article can be found at: http://sex.sagepub.com/content/14/1/79

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Article

Working-class lesbian parents emotional engagement with their childrens education: Intersections of class and sexuality
Catherine Ann Nixon
Durham University, UK

Sexualities 14(1) 7999 ! The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363460710390564 sex.sagepub.com

Abstract This article examines intersections of class and sexuality in lesbian parents educational practices, specifically their emotional engagements with their childrens education. This research draws on Bourdieus (1986b) concept of capitals and current research that utilizes the concept of emotional capital, in theorizing mothers emotional investments in their childrens education. Studies of working-class lesbians experiences of marginalization within education relevant to this investigation are also consulted. Based on qualitative data, this article examines ways in which working-class lesbian parents negative experiences of school are used as emotional resources in three key ways; to protect their children from bullying, to teach their children life skills and to promote values of equality and acceptance. I suggest that in utilizing the concept of emotional capital, this work begins to make sense of the subjective and material realities of educational involvement for working-class lesbian parents. Keywords educational involvement, emotional capital, sexuality, working-class lesbian parents

Introduction
This article explores intersections of class and sexuality in working-class and working-class educated1 lesbian parents emotional engagement with their
Corresponding author: Catherine Ann Nixon, ORB Research Group, Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University Queens Campus, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6BH, UK Email: c.a.nixon@durham.ac.uk

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childrens education. Parents involvement in their childrens education has been studied extensively within the eld of education research with a majority of work focusing on parents classed practices (Ball et al., 1996; Ball and Vincent, 1998; Crozier, 2000; Reay, 1999; Reay and Lucey, 2000). More recently, intersections of class, gender and ethnicity in parents educational practices have also been explored (Gillies, 2006, 2007; Reay, 1998a, 2004; Reay et al. 2007) to demonstrate the importance of intersectionality as an approach to education research which addresses the limitations of examining social inequalities in isolation. What is relatively undertheorized is the way that parents educational involvement is shaped by class and sexual subjectivity (with the exception of Taylor, 2009). Taylor explores gay and lesbian parents school choices, the dierent resources and opportunities available to middle-class and working-class parents and the ways in which sexuality and class intersect in the search for inclusive schools, with an ethos of acceptance and diversity with which gay and lesbian parents and their children can identify. While Taylors (2009) work examines the role of social capital in lesbian and gay parents school choices and highlights the importance of emotional reexivity in home school relations, my aim in this article is to explore the concept of emotional capital in relation to working-class lesbian parents emotional engagement with their childrens education. I empirically demonstrate how such emotional engagements are shaped by classed and sexualized educational histories. The intersections of sexuality and class have been the focus of recent feminist research, particularly in the work of Skeggs (1997, 2004) and Taylor (2005, 2006, 2007). Taylor (2004) has identied gaps in research on lesbian lifestyles, specically the neglect of the intersections between class and sexuality and the subjective and material realities of these. Taylors work has made signicant contributions to the study of intersectionality, and by making visible working-class lesbian lives she demonstrates that [c]lass and sexuality are situated in the everyday spaces of real lives, lives lived on the margins yet lives which nonetheless deserve attention and respect (Taylor, 2005: 5). Research in education has highlighted how discourses of education and parenting practices have normalized middle-class educational practices. Social capital is relevant here in its relation to competition for educational attainment; cultural and social capitals are used to negotiate school systems where middle-class parents educational know how and social contacts are used to increase opportunities for their children. It is the institutional legitimation of requisite that is middleclass forms of capital that is central to the reproduction of the good parent and the continued marginalization and pathologizing of working-class parents within the education system. The ways in which heterosexuality is normalized with the school context has also been explored (Epstein, 1994; Epstein and Johnson, 1998; Gabb, 2004, 2005) and this has highlighted the invisibility of lesbian and gay existence within education. It is the marginalization of working-class practices and the impact of heteronormativity within the context of school that I examine in this article, in order to begin to make sense of parents subjective and material realities within the context of education. In the rst section I examine historical

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constructions of the good mother, demonstrating how this ideology is both classed and sexualized. I then explore the development and appropriation of the concept of emotional capital and draw on empirical work to argue that emotions as resources are classed and sexualized (Taylor, 2007).

The good mother: A classed and sexualized ideology

Historically within western societies, the moral condition of the nation was seen to derive from the moral standards of women (Skeggs, 1997: 42) and mothers were responsible not only for taking care of their childrens physical needs but also for educating their children and raising moral citizens. Feminist research has examined the development and reproduction of (through psychological and cultural discourses and practices) the good mother ideology (Lawler, 2000; Silva, 1996; Smart, 1996). In her analysis of mothers accounts of their experiences and views of being a mother, Lawler (2000) suggests that [m]othering, then, means meeting childrens needs. Childrens needs, and especially their emotional needs, are the point of motherhood. What mothers are there for is to full [childrens] needs. The extent to which they do this successfully is the measure of good (or bad) mothering (2000: 125). However, good mothering is not judged solely on the fullment of childrens needs; the character of the mother is also subject to evaluation. As Skeggs posits [t]he subject position of caring involves far more than having the right skills: it involves being a particular sort of person. And the attributes of the right sort of person are closely interlinked with wider cultural discourses of femininity and motherhood (1997: 67). The good mother ideology is subsumed within constructions of the bourgeois family in which the behaviour of women was interpreted in relation to their role as wives and mothers and based on their responsibility, the control of their sexuality, their care, protection and education of children (Skeggs, 1997: 5). Smart (1996) examines how the ideology of motherhood and the discourses used in its construction place lone mothers particularly nevermarried mothers outside the boundary of good motherhood. Although the discursive construction of motherhood is modied through shifting discourses and practices across time, the legacy of the dominant ideology of good mothers as white, middle-class, married, heterosexual women remains, creating deviant forms of motherhood, such as lone and teenage mothers (Smart, 1996; Wilson and Huntington, 2005), working-class mothers (Gillies, 2006), Black mothers (Akanke, 1994; Jackson, 1997) and gay/lesbian mothers (see Clarke, 2000, 2001; Gabb, 2005; Taylor, 2009; Van Voorhis and McClain, 1997). Today, the enduring paradox of lesbian motherhood stems from the linking of a culturally legitimate natural identity with a less socially accepted one (Hequembourg and Farrell, 1999: 541). Allen (2007) argues that within education, teachers and students (and I suggest parents) are constructed as ideally non-sexual. For Paechter [t]he school as a system works hard to exclude the body, privileging the sound mind and marginalizing any subject which deals directly with bodies (2004: 317). Richardson (1996)

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argues that as lesbians are part of a social group that is dened by its sexuality it becomes clear that for lesbian mothers or lesbians working with children the traditional perception of women as maternal is overshadowed by the notion of lesbians, either directly or indirectly, posing some sort of sexual threat to children (1996: 280). Constructions of good and bad parenting are culturally and historically specic and have shifted over time and place as a consequence of the prevailing discourses and practices of the period. It is through historical analysis of such developments that the inseparability of gender, class and sexuality in current constructions of good mothers can be recognized. In the next section, I explore the construction of good mothers in the context of education and highlight the relevance of exploring intersections of class and sexuality for lesbian parents negotiating the school.

Parents educational practices: Examining class and sexuality

Good mothers are those who are involved in their childs schooling in particular ways to make the right educational choices these practices and the values which underpin them are middle-class practices and are perceived as the best practices. As mentioned earlier, there exists an extensive amount of research of parents involvement in their childrens education, particularly research of parents school choices which demonstrates how educational practices are classed and gendered. Reay and Balls (1997) work highlights that [i]ssues that are signicant for many working-class parents are marginalized in choice debates (1997: 90) and Crozier (2000) demonstrates that as working-class parents are generally less visible within the education system this is often perceived as passivity or indierence in their childrens schooling. Importantly, this work demonstrates classed inequalities within education, where working-class parents choices are often constrained by personal histories of school failure and/or limited access to middle-class resources required to negotiate the school system. The intersections of class, gender and ethnicity in parents educational practices have been explored (Gillies, 2006, 2007; Reay, 1998b, 2004; Reay and Ball, 1997; Reay et al., 2007). I build on this work here, to explore intersections of class and sexuality in lesbian parents educational practices, which has been until recently (Taylor, 2007, 2009) relatively under-theorized. The silencing or at least marginalization of issues of sexuality within the school curriculum has been noted (Allen, 2007; Epstein and Johnson, 1998; Paechter, 2004). Research focusing on lesbians in the school context has been carried out in the USA and in Britain; specically on the experiences of lesbian students, teachers and parents negotiating educative contexts and managing their identities therein (Adams et al., 2004; Dankmeijer, 1993; Gabb, 2005; Woods and Harbeck, 1991). Taylors (2005, 2006, 2009) research on classed lesbian and gay lives considers the school amongst other contexts as a site for the concrete embodiments of intersections (2005: 5). Taylor examines working-class lesbians recalled school experiences, and their sense of being doubly disadvantaged; that not only did their

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sexuality count against them but that their class did too (Taylor, 2006: 447). Drawing on Taylors work, I explore working-class lesbian parents experiences of school and education; their memories of school as children and their involvement as parents in their childrens education. For Reay [t]here is a need to investigate womens experience of education in the past in order to understand maternal activities in the present (1998a: 47). I extend Reays argument here and suggest that working-class lesbian parents emotional engagements with their childrens education are shaped by parents classed and sexualized educational histories. It is appropriate at this point to explore the concept of emotional capital and the development of this concept within education research.

Emotional capital as a resource in education

Bourdieus theory of social space breaks with traditional concepts of social class in a number of ways, not least in its break with economic reductionism. Capital, for Bourdieu is dened as the set of actually usable resources and powers (Bourdieu, 1986b: 114), and he further described it like trumps in a game of cards . . . powers which dene the chances of prot in a given eld (Bourdieu, 1992: 230). In terms of social positioning, people are positioned within social space according to the volume and composition of their capitals, and the change in these two properties over time (Bourdieu, 1986a: 114), that is, people are distributed within the social world, according to the relative weight of the dierent kinds of capital in the total set of their assets (1992: 231). Much research of parents educational practices draws on Bourdieus concept of cultural, social and economic capitals in relation to resources used to negotiate the education system via social networks, educational know-how, and nancial resources, and the power and prestige that comes from the aforementioned capitals when they are recognized as legitimate and converted into symbolic capital. Although emotional capital was never theorized explicitly by Bourdieu, he does acknowledge that it is women who are primarily engaged in emotional work within the family context (Bourdieu, 1998). Research of parents classed practices in education extends Bourdieus concept of capital to introduce emotional capital (Gillies, 2006; Reay, 2000, 2004) as a resource that parents (mainly mothers) draw on in their engagement with their childrens education. Emotion as a term is multifaceted, but can be dened as a feeling, aect, or sentiment, for example anger, frustration or happiness. Emotional capital as dened by Reay is generally conned within the bounds of aective relationships of family and friends and encompasses the emotional resources you hand on to those you care about (2000: 572) and it is a resource that is accessed and used more readily by women than by men (Reay, 2000, 2004). The dierence between emotional capital and other forms is that emotional capital is a private resource exchanged within family and friendship networks.

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Emotional capital and mothers educational involvement

Reays (2000, 2004) work examines gender and class dierences apparent in the emotional work that parents do in relation to their childrens education; mothers (more than fathers) in Reays research were involved in their childrens schooling and education, and the way in which class subjectivities shaped mothers use of emotions (and how these became capitals) was discernible. For working-class mothers, shared expectations and beliefs about educational failure are often shaped by a personal history of academic failure (Reay, 2000: 577) which impacts on mothers engagement with their childrens education and school/ing. This is not to say that working-class parents engage with their childrens education in negative ways, but that working-class parents are often less condent about negotiating their childrens school/ing and often do not have access to the economic, cultural and social capitals needed to do so. That said, I suggest that although working-class lesbian parents in this research had negative experiences of school as children, their negative emotions evolved into emotional resources and were used by parents to foster values of equality and acceptance in their children (discussed in the nal section of this article). Aforementioned research of mothers emotional engagements in their childrens education focuses on the impact of emotional capital on childrens academic success or progress. While the importance of their childrens academic achievement is raised by working-class lesbian parents in my research, the impact of emotional capital was most apparent in their endeavours to protect their children from bullying, and in promoting values. Gilliess (2006) research also demonstrates how parents emotional engagement is classed; pride was an emotion expressed by both middle-class and working-class parents in reference to their children, although pride was measured against dierent classed value systems. For mothers with middle-class cultural capital, pride was expressed in terms of their childs academic achievements or intelligence, whereas attributes most likely to be proudly described by working-class parents were childrens ability to stay out of trouble, get on with others, and work hard (2006: 287). Gilliess (2006, 2007) and Reays (2000, 2004) work examines the intersections of class and gender in parents educational involvement, specically the way mothers emotional labour and investments in their childrens school/ing are constituted by class subjectivities. This work makes important contributions to research on intersections of class and gender, and it also provides a rm starting point for further research. Where intersections of gender, class and race are the focus of Reays and Gilliess work, Taylor (2006, 2009) focuses on the intersections of class and sexuality in contemporary lesbian lives and highlights the potential disadvantages facing working-class lesbians within the school context; [i]f you are stuck in the maze of being working class in a society that normalizes the middle class experience then it would be seem even harder to nd the route to sexual acceptance within the heteronormative context (2006: 450). Drawing on aforementioned research and on interviews with seven lesbian parents, this article explores the role of emotional

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capital in working-class lesbian parents engagement with their childrens education.

The research study

Evidence for this article is taken from PhD research examining lesbian parents identity management strategies within educative contexts (Nixon, n.d.). Qualitative data are drawn from interviews with seven lesbian parents (four as couples and three individually) living in the north east of England. All the women were white2 and ages ranged from 35 to 44 years and while ethnicity is not examined in this study, intersections between class, gender and ethnicity in the eld of education research have been examined (Reay, 1998c, 2004; Reay et al., 2007). Sampling was purposive in that lesbian parents with children of school age were requested to take part. All women taking part identied as lesbian or gay and as parents.3 Four women (Denise, Bev, Jan and Marie) lived in large towns and three women (Alison, Joanne and Carol) lived in a small town or village. The women taking part were assured of condentiality and their names, the names of family members, friends, teachers and schools were changed to protect their identity (see Appendix table 1 for further details of family compositions). Although interviewees did not dene their class identities, drawing on Bourdieus (1986a, 1986b) work on social class, the women in this research were dened as working class based on their educational background, employment and access to various forms of economic, cultural and social capitals (see Appendix table 2 for education and employment histories). For Bourdieu, the social world can be represented in the form of a (multi-dimensional) space (1992: 229) as opposed to a one-dimensional economic eld. It is Bourdieus cultural turn from analysis of class positions (in traditional models of social stratication) to examinations of class practices that makes his model of social class pertinent to my theorization of parents classed educational practices. As individuals positions in social space change across time and location, it was important to understand the educational histories of interviewees, as parents experiences, beliefs and expectations of education are pertinent to their educational practices. As such, I have also drawn on McDermotts (2004) work to capture the shifting educational and employment trajectories of the women taking part, and dene the women taking part as working-class and workingclass educated (see note 1) based on McDermotts framework. The women were centrally involved in their childrens day-to-day care, and in making decisions and choices about their childrens education. The signicance of their lesbian identity in a variety of social contexts was explored throughout the interviews, including aspects of their family life, social networks, childhood experiences of school and more recent educational practices as parents. The womens workingclass experiences of school as children and as parents were also evident within

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their narratives; as Reay suggests [c]lass may not always be explicit within the womens accounts but I suggest that it still lurks beneath the surface of their texts, inuencing the way they view themselves and others (1999: 95), and it is the way in which class and sexuality intersect in working-class lesbian parents educational practices (particularly in parents use of emotional capital) that is the focus of this article. Drawing from aforementioned research and from my empirical work I set out the analysis in two sections; rst I explore memories of school; how the women taking part in this research recalled their experiences of school as pupils, and demonstrate how experiences of failure at school constitute a double deviance for workingclass lesbians. In the second part, I demonstrate ways in which interviewees educational histories shape their emotional engagements with their childrens school/ing and education and argue that parents negative experiences of school are transformed into a positive resource or emotional capital to prepare their children for the material realities of life and to promote values of equality and diversity.

Memories of school
For the women interviewed, my enquiry of their experiences of school as pupils/students evoked accounts of poor academic achievement and of dierence; accounts which resonate with Taylors double deviance where, for the women in her study there was a sense that not only did their sexuality count against them but that their class did too (2006: 447). Four women recalled a sense of keeping themselves to themselves, alluding to the notion that to get too close to people was to risk disclosure of their sexual identity. Homophobic bullying and teasing that went on in the school playground were also highlighted as reasons to say nothing. For Jan, her memories of school powerfully described her sense of being out of place as she recalled her academic failure and her fear of being identied as gay:
Ahh I hated it, I didnt have, I didnt do no exams at all really (inhales deeply) well I was a loner (exhales deeply) and I just hated school . . . I was [friends with] a lad, we were always together, you know there was always me and him, but he got tortured hey ya pu, and I think thats what kept me down. (Jan, 43)

Not drawing attention to herself was for Jan a means of surviving school. As Taylor suggests, [t]he degree of comfort in classed space can be mapped onto the level of comfort, safety and belonging within heterosexual space. Here multiple inequalities co-exist and regulate who ts in (2004: 4). For Jan, her recollections of school as a working-class lesbian pupil were never about tting in, but instead emphasized her outsider position in her dis-identication with academic success and heterosexual femininity.

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Carol and Marie expressed how important sport was in their years at school; they identied with and derived condence from their involvement in sports over and above academic achievement:
The only time I enjoyed school really was during the summer, because then I was into the sport a lot, the athletics . . . but the rest of the time Id say I was a loner . . . I had more male friends than I did female friends . . . but I mean from, Id say I was about twelve, thirteen that I knew, that I was gay, but I never let on to anybody at school. (Marie, 36)

Dunne (1997) suggests that for lesbians in her research who had questioned their sexuality during adolescence, [s]chool work and/or sport, as opposed to heterosexual romance, was generally the main interest and source of esteem and condence for this group (1997: 83). I suggest that for Carol and Marie, their dis-identications with heterosexual romance and academic achievement strengthened both their involvement in sports in and out of school and the condence they derived from this. Bev talked about her childhood as insecure and rough, where she was frequently kept o school to keep her mum company, and was moved around to spend time living with dierent family members. She recalls clearly her dierence from other children at school based on wealth and family composition, and a lack of emotional support from her parents:
All the people in a class that I was in were from . . . predominantly wealthier families, with a regular . . . family background, two parents, and whose parents worked, and they didnt come from the council area and . . . we didnt live in a council house but, I missed a lot of schooling and my parents never went to parents evenings, and I done the Duke of Edinburgh award, they never came to the presentation, but I felt like I kept my head above water, I should have been, according to statistics, washed along the wayside. (Bev, 44)

Denise recalls hating every minute of school and of always feeling tired through lack of sleep one of the consequences of living with domestic violence: so I was absolutely exhausted most days at school, I just wanted to go home to make sure me mam was ok, I used to go home at lunch time (Denise, 38). This highlights some of the pressure and stress Denise experienced as a child and adolescent, and the emotional and physical eects of living with domestic violence, which clearly shaped her experiences of school life. Although Denise was out as gay to her friends at thirteen her disclosure about her sexual identity did not extend to her home context. Denise emphasized that her mother was a devout proper catholic and that the idea of homosexuality made her mother feel sick. Denise did not envisage acceptance of her sexuality from her parents and this, coupled with fear of violence at home were reasons enough for Denise to remain silent about her sexuality.

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Reays (1998a) research with working-class mothers explored ways in which classed educational histories shaped mothers involvement in their childrens education, highlighting that working-class mothers emotional work involved preparing their children for survival at school. Taylors (2007) work highlights the emotional consequences of school failure for working-class lesbians, where failure is experienced as a double deviance as classed and sexualized. In the next section I explore how classed and sexualized educational histories shape working-class lesbian parents emotional engagements in their childrens education and argue that lesbian parents in this research draw on classed and sexualized emotions and use these emotional resources to educate and prepare their children for the realities of school life and adulthood.

Surviving school: Intersections of class and sexuality

As discussed earlier, Gillies (2006, 2007) and Reay (2000, 2004) emphasize that middle-class and working-class mothers emotional work in relation to their childrens education diers in important ways. It is noted that middle-class parents emotional investments in their childrens schooling are tied to the values and expectations placed on their childrens academic success. Moreover, for Gillies (2006) working-class parents emotional investments may be directed towards day to day survival at school as well as maximizing formal educational opportunities (2006: 285). I wish to extend this point by suggesting that working-class lesbian parents emotional investments are mediated by class and sexual subjectivities; for workingclass lesbian parents in this research, concern about actual or potential homophobic bullying aimed at their children, shaped parents emotional work in their eorts to protect their child/ren and promote self-esteem. In addition to ensuring protection from bullying, working-class lesbian parents emotional engagement with their childrens education involved teaching skills for life and promoting acceptance of homosexuality. I would argue that for some parents, their early (often negative) experiences of school as children, impact on their emotional work as parents, working to boost their childrens resilience to the harsh realities of school life (Gillies, 2006, 2007). The outcome of transferring emotional capital in this way is two-fold; as an emotional buer against the harsh realities of school life and as an educational resource in promoting values of equality and acceptance of homosexuality.

Skills for life

Studies of parents classed educational practices (Crozier, 2000; Reay, 2000) suggest that working-class parents approach their childrens school work with some trepidation and concern about their ability to help them, which often stems from their own personal histories of failure at school. Working-class parents often

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do not have the same expectations of their children as their middle-class counterparts, in terms of academic achievement and career prospects (see for example Walkerdine et al., 2002) and while parents in this research wanted their children to get a good education, it was clear they were also concerned that their children learned non-academic skills; survival skills for the material realities of life. Joanne, who left school without academic qualications and struggled to nd work, did not want her daughter Kelly to experience the diculties she faced: I want Kelly to do well, I dont want her to leave school with no qualications (Joanne, 38). It is also evident that Joanne feels unable to support Kelly in her academic work but that she can contribute to her education in terms of life skills. Teaching Kelly that money is not always readily available and must be appreciated and managed well, are important lessons that Joanne feels she must impart, as she comments later:
theres stu theyre learning now that theyll never use in their lifetime, so that should be replaced with things such as how to open a bank account, how to put money in, how to withdraw money . . . I think Ive been brought into Kellys life to teach her life skills (laughs) . . . and Alisons the academic. (Joanne, 38)

How to manage on a tight budget is, for Joanne an important lesson, shaped by her own shifting economic position in social space. Joanne and Alison also talk with pride about Kellys appreciation for the value of money:
She mentioned it again the other day, the skiing trip, but she knows its really expensive . . . she doesnt presume that she can go. (Alison, 35) . . . she knows that it wouldnt be like handed to her on a plate, you know, she knows that it would be something special. (Joanne, 38)

Reay suggests that for middle-class parents in her study, their childrens happiness was conceptualized as future happiness, which could be secured through academic achievement and good career prospects. In contrast, the majority of working-class mothers talked frequently about their childs happiness in the here and now (Reay, 2000: 579). The importance of academic achievement was acknowledged by the interviewees in my research, although this was qualied with a sense of keeping things in perspective and for some parents a healthy balance between school work and having fun was the key to their childrens happiness. Parents were interested in their childrens school work and the progress they were making, and at the same time they took care not to be too pushy or demanding, but instead talked about being fair regarding time spent on homework and play. For Carol, having rules regarding homework enabled her children to complete their work but also have fun: before they go out to play they do their homework, thats the rule, even on a Friday, if they have coursework they will do it on a Friday, so theyve got the weekend o (Carol, 36).

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Research on parents educational practices suggests that middle-class parents make educational choices for their children to secure academic advantage and good career prospects in the future and have higher expectations of their childrens academic success and economic future than their working-class counterparts (e.g. Ball et al. 1996; Reay, 1999). Working-class and working-class educated parents in this research also wanted their children to do well academically, although their childrens happiness in the here and now was valued over and above their academic successes. In addition to supporting their children in getting a good education and imparting life skills, parents also emphasized the importance of letting their children nd their own way in life, to be condent about making choices and decisions and to be autonomous. Bev highlights this when she talks about her involvement in her childrens primary school and her choice not to be involved with the secondary school that her daughter was starting: I didnt really wanna become involved, coz I felt she needed to nd her own feet, coz when [as a parent] youre in school all the time . . . they dont nd their own way, youre always there (Bev, 44). Although working-class parents invisibility within schools is often perceived by teachers as passivity (Crozier, 2000), for Bev, not being involved or visible within her daughters school was the best way to support her daughter to develop condence and independence; Bev continued to be involved in her daughters education outside the school environment.

Ensuring protection against bullying

The importance of defending and protecting their children was expressed frequently by the working-class women in this study. While anger was a characteristic emotion of the working-class mothers in Gillies (2006) research, in this research, anxiety was the prevailing emotion regarding issues of bullying (actual and potential); anxiety about the eect this was having on their children, anxiety that they were the cause of the bullying, and anxiety about how to deal with the problem. Crozier highlights that for many working-class parents in her research, there had to be a very strong reason to go to the school to intervene (2000: 41). My study also supports this, and although Jan, Marie, Alison, Joanne and Denise were not involved in networks with parents and/or teachers they would attend their childrens school for important matters, if problems arose, or for parents evenings or school events: I mean networking with school . . . nah I dont think wed want to get involved too much with the, the other parents at school really . . . its just not my scene (Marie, 36). With its negative associations for many working-class lesbians, schools are not spaces in which they feel a sense of belonging, but rather a sense of being out of place (Taylor, 2004). Despite Jan and Maries dis-identications with the school context, their concerns for their daughter Sarah, who was being bullied

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in their neighbourhood, led them to approach Sarahs teacher (who they knew was also gay):
we actually introduced ourselves to the teacher and said, we are living together we are parents . . . (CN: was there a reason you did that?) . . . if there was any problems with Sarah at school where she was gonna get bullied by kids, because of us, I wanted the school to be aware of the situation. (Marie, 36)

Ensuring their children are protected and treated fairly was one of the ways that working-class mothers in Gillies (2006) research used their emotions as resources, and although her respondents envisaged acrimonious encounters with teachers, Jan and Marie described a more conciliatory engagement, shaped, I suggest, by their identication with a lesbian teacher at the school and an expectation that their concerns would be met with understanding. Apart from Jan and Marie, the parents in this study had not discussed their concerns about bullying with teachers at their childrens school. Kelly had experienced bullying from her fathers new girlfriend and her daughter, which got so threatening that Kelly became unwell physically and emotionally. Joanne and Alison were aware of the potential for homophobic bullying, particularly within school and were keen to avoid this where possible: If it was a case where [Kelly] was gonna get bullied for it then I would want her not to [tell her friends], for her, you know and thats protecting her, you know because I dont want her to have a hard time because of the way that weve chosen to have our lives (Joanne, 38). Later in their interview Joanne and Alison said they would intervene if Kelly was being bullied at school, although for Joanne it makes more sense for Kelly to play safe and avoid bullying by saying nothing to her school friends about her parents relationship. The safety and protection of her children were important issues for Denise and problems of bullying in school were spoken of regularly during her interview. For Denise, her sexuality and the bullying that her children were victims of, were inextricably linked: I mean we had all the crying an that when I rst told them [that she was gay] and then [ex-girlfriend] moved in, but it just made it a hell of a lot worse, she ended up havin to move out because they were getting bullied that much (Denise, 38). Denise had moved her children to a dierent school in the local area but the bullying had continued there. Later I asked Denise if she felt able to approach sta at school about the bullying and she responded: The teachers dont even sort the ghting out . . . theyre not good at all at sorting things out at school (Denise, 38). Denise expresses a sense of helplessness at resolving the problem of bullying. Although working-class parents in Croziers (2000) study would intervene in their childrens school if there were a serious reason, I suggest sexuality cuts across class in this scenario (Taylor, 2009); intervention for Denise is constrained by sexual subjectivity and she does not want to raise the issue of bullying at school

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as this risks disclosure of her sexuality. At home Denise is trying to maintain a separation between her lesbian identity and her family life; she conceals her lesbian identity to protect her children from nancial diculties as her lifestyle choices are constrained by her ex-husbands conditional nancial support:
[Ex-husband] does help me he didnt at rst because [Denises girlfriend had moved in] thats one thing hes stubborn about [he says] if anybody moves in with you, my money stops for you . . . he gives me thirty pounds on a Friday and buys the kids if they need a pair of trainers or jeans or shoes, he just buys them straight away for them. (Denise, 38)

Unable to work because of long-term health problems, Denise wants to do the best she can to support her children, nancially and emotionally. Living out a lesbian life is not an option for Denise at this time; to do so would mean the end of nancial support for herself and her children. Denises desire to intervene and protect her children from bullying is mediated by material constraints and her concealment of her sexuality. Denises experiences of living with domestic violence as a child, hating every minute of school and the break up of her marriage, were experiences that continued to shape her emotional engagement with her childrens education. Denise emphasizes the importance of her childrens well-being and in her comment, next, explains how she is prepared to put her own lesbian lifestyle on hold in her endeavour to protect them, both psychologically and physically.
I think its a lot easier for the kids, me living my life like this [concealing her lesbian identity], I think, why should the kids be hurt, my lifes changed, I shouldnt change theirs, so I try and keep it as normal as possible for them, I even go to the school with him [ex-husband] to pick them . . . while theyre not old enough to look after themselves, and stick up for themselves, I feel like I need to protect them against what Im doing . . . I dont want to bring them problems and make them unhappy while theyre only kids . . . I think its coz my childhood was so I was so upset all the time I just want to make sure it doesnt happen to them. (Denise, 38)

In addition to the emotional work parents engaged in to protect their children from homophobic bullying, parents eorts to teach their children the values of equality and armation of homosexuality were also evident. Promoting values: Equality and acceptance of homosexuality. Working-class lesbian experiences of school, as discussed earlier, are described by Taylor as a double deviance: a failure in terms of class and sexuality. It is no surprise that experiences of injustice and discrimination shape values and, for the women in this research, equality and acceptance were highly valued and were qualities that they wanted their children to develop and demonstrate. Denise talks about concealing her lesbian identity to protect her children from bullying at school and in the neighbourhood. However this is juxtaposed with an

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openness about and positive attitude toward (homo)sexuality. In her interview, Denise spoke warmly about her son Billy who has been bullied at school. Denise and her friends had talked about the possibility that he might be gay, and she goes on to explain:
He wanted to wear tights, til he was seven . . . and he still does these little dances you know like hell get tissues and hell jump up and down like a Morris dancer, I laugh my head o, he just does things like that and theyll [her other children] say oh you look like a pu and I say well if hes a pu hes a pu, hes still a gorgeous pu arent yer Billy. (Denise, 38)

By standing up for her son, accepting him for who he is, Denise draws on her emotional resources, demonstrating the qualities of acceptance and equality that are then passed to her children as emotional capital. Denises daughter had also been seen holding hands with girls from school and her brother and sister had come home to tell Denise that she was a lesbian. Denise reects as she recalls this and continues: well if she is [a lesbian], Im gonna make it a hell of a lot easier [for her] than Ive had it. It is clear from the way Denise spoke about her children that she would support them if they identied as gay or lesbian. Coming out for Denise was and remains dicult; handing on her emotional capital is a way to equip her children with the emotional resources they might use in negotiating their own sexual identities. Promoting values was also evident when the women spoke of coming out to their children, an emotional time for parents and children. For Bev, it was important to nd a balance between being open about her lesbian identity, but not to the point where her children might be bullied. Her children were concerned about being bullied if their school friends found out, and Bev responded to this:
I said to them well you have the choice whether you tell your friends or not, but you need to let me know your choice, so that I can support you, and they both chose not to tell their friends, but if their friends asked or became aware of it, then they would decide what they were gonna do from there. (Bev, 44)

This had a positive impact on Bevs daughter who had become a beacon for school peers questioning their own sexuality:
Its quite amazing especially my daughter, in her year at school, there was at least half a dozen gay people, boys and girls, and they seem to go to her, and Ive said to her why dya think they come to you? and she said well I dont judge them mam and Im there to support them. (Bev, 44)

Fostering an acceptance of homosexuality is important to Bev and she expresses pride in her children as she talks about how they have challenged homophobia in school. In her drama group Bevs daughter challenged her teachers beliefs about

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section 284 and his comment that he could not discuss homosexuality in the classroom. Bev proudly describes how her daughter (16) went back and challenged him and he looked into it and brought an apology to the class. Bev also gives an account of a similar incident her son (14) was involved in:
he challenged one of the teachers, because he felt they were being derogatory towards gay people . . . hes not (usually) a challenging person, hes very timid and quiet but, you know at the end of the day (he said) theyre being derogatory about my mam and her friends, and then he defended it, so I was really impressed with that. (Bev, 44)

Conclusion
We can begin to make sense of working-class lesbian parents involvement in their childrens education when we consider how these parents emotional engagements with their childrens education are shaped by intersections of class and sexuality. The ndings presented here demonstrate ways in which working-class lesbians classed and sexualized emotions, generated throughout their educational histories, were central in the development of working-class lesbian parents emotional capital. An important point to emphasize is that parents negative past experiences of school evolved into positive emotional resources that could be passed on to their children in three key ways: ensuring protection from bullying, teaching skills for life and promoting acceptance of homosexuality. Reays (2000, 2004) and Gilliess (2006, 2007) use of the concept of emotional capital in their explorations of parents classed and gendered educational practices has been extended in this study of working-class lesbian parents educational practices, with emotional resources seen as classed and sexualized (Taylor, 2007). Reay (2004) suggests that to make sense of mothers educational practices, it is necessary to explore their personal educational histories. For working-class parents, histories of academic failure to some extent shape their class subjectivities and educational practices as parents. Extending this, Taylor (2007) suggests that for working-class lesbians, failure at school is experienced as a doubling of trouble, where their class and sexuality count against them. I suggest that the concept of emotional capital is useful in drawing out the classed and sexualized emotional resources that working-class lesbian parents use in their engagements with their childrens education. Gillies (2007) demonstrates how emotional investments are classed and that for working-class mothers these investments may be directed towards day-to-day survival as well as maximizing future opportunities to get ahead (2007: 128). For the parents in my research, the short-term benets of emotional investments were also central to their emotional engagements with their childrens education, ensuring their childrens happiness at school and protecting them from bullying. Parents in this research wanted to protect their children from negative experiences of school and education. Through their emotional work, respondents provided their children with the emotional resources to help them survive

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school, equipping them with life skills to enable them to understand and manage the material realities of life, fostering values of equality and diversity within their children. Parents were proud of their children, proud that they understood the value of money and proud that they could recognize and challenge inequality and discrimination. Parents negative emotions associated with their experiences of double deviance within school were not reproduced unaltered in their eorts to protect their children, but had instead evolved into emotional resources and were used to generate condence, teach life skills and promote values, to be used by their children throughout their school years and beyond.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Yvette Taylor, Jacqui Gabb and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on ways to improve earlier drafts of this article.

Notes
1. Based on McDermotts (2004) criteria where social class was attributed using occupation and education, the women taking part were working-class (five) and working-class educated (two). Therefore, [w]omen who had no higher education, were not professionally employed and whose parents were the same, were categorized as working class. Women who were university educated and whose parents had no higher education and non-professional jobs were categorized as working class educated (2004: 180). It is important to point out that all the women in this research were from working-class backgrounds. On the basis of their shared classed and sexualized educational histories, the women are referred to in this article as working-class lesbian parents. 2. It is likely that exploration of the womens self-reported White British status would tease out some of their taken-for-granted privileges of belonging and legitimation based on race. 3. One woman, Joanne, did not identify as a parent. However, she described herself, her partner Alison and Alisons daughter as a family. Joannes rejection of the identity of parent is explored further elsewhere (Nixon, n.d.). 4. Refers to The Local Government Act (England & Wales) 1988; Section 28/2A prohibition on promoting homosexuality, stating that local authority shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality (or) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship (Local Government Act, 1988). This legislation caused much confusion among teachers, silencing any discussion of sexual orientation within the classroom. This legislation was repealed in 2003.

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Catherine Nixon is a Research Assistant at the School for Medicine and Health, Durham University and is completing her PhD in Education at the Centre for Education and Inclusion Research, Sheeld Hallam University. Her research interests include the discursive negotiation of gender, sexual, parent and learner identities; discourse and mechanisms of power; social class and the reproduction of inequality within education. Catherine has a special interest in qualitative research inquiry and in critical discourse analysis of texts and narratives.

Appendix
Table 1. Characteristics of lesbian parents* Age in Marital yrs history 35 Divorced Current relationship status With partner, living apart Higher Education

Name Alison

Employment

Joanne 38 Denise 38

Not disclosed Separated (still married) Divorced

With partner, living apart Not with a partner no

Yes (currently Full-time Employment on a degree development course) co-ordinator in the third sector no On long-term sick On long-term sick Previously care worker in residential home Currently unemployed Yes (recently completed a Previously catering counselling supervisor in the public sector course) no Currently unemployed Volunteer at local community centre no On long-term sick Previously a taxi driver and IT tutor no Self-employed Transport Manager

Bev

44

With partner, living apart

Jan

43

Divorced

With partner, living together With partner, living together With partner, living apart

Marie

36

Divorced

Carol

36

Divorced

*All the women live in the North-east of England and describe themselves as White British.

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Table 2. Details of family compositions Parents Alison Joanne Denise Parent status Birth-parent Jo does not identify as a parent Birth-parent Children Girl/13 Origins Alison & her daughter live together Alisons partner Joanne does not live with them Denise & her 3 children live together. Denises husband lives apart and has regular contact with the children. Bev & her 2 children live together. Bevs current partner does not live with them. Jan and Marie are civil partners and live together with Jans 12 year old daughter and Maries 16 year old daughter

Boy/17, boy/14, girl/12

Bev

Birth-parent

Girl/16, boy/14

Jan

Birth-parent & step-parent

Girl/16, girl/12

Marie Carol

Birth-parent & step-parent Birth-parent

Girl/14, girl/10

Carol lives with her 2 daughters. Her ex-husband has regular contact with the girls.

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