Family Mobility: Reconciling Career Opportunities and Educational Strategy PDF
Preview Family Mobility: Reconciling Career Opportunities and Educational Strategy
Family Mobility Family mobility decisions reveal much about how the public and private realms of social life interact and change. This sociological study explores how contemporary families reconcile individual members’ career and education projects within the family unit over time and space, and unpacks the intersubjective constraints on workforce mobility. This Australian mixed methods study sampled Defence Force families and middle- class professional families to illustrate how families’ educational projects are necessarily and deeply implicated in issues of workforce mobility and immobility, in complex ways. Defence families move frequently, often absorbing the stresses of moving through ‘viscous’ institutions as private troubles. In contrast, the selective mobility of middle-c lass professional families and their ‘no-g o zones’ contribute to the public issue of poorly serviced rural communities. Fam- ilies with different social, material and vocational resources at their disposal are shown to reflexively weigh the benefits and risks associated with moving differently. The book also explores how priorities shift as children move through educational phases. The families’ narratives offer empirical windows on larger social processes, such as the mobility imper- ative, the gender imbalance in the family’s intersubjective bargains, labour market cre- dentialism, the social construction of place, and the family’s role in the reproduction of class structure. Catherine Doherty is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Queens- land University of Technology. She works in the sociology of education with an interest in mobile populations and educational markets. As well as this project, she has published research on international students in higher education, and international curriculum in secondary schools. Wendy Patton is a Professor and Executive Dean in the Faculty of Education at Queens- land University of Technology, widely published in theoretical approaches to career studies across different populations in terms of age, socio-e conomic background and employment experience. She is currently the Series Editor of an International Career Development Book series by Sense Publishers. Paul Shield is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Queensland Uni- versity of Technology with expertise in quantitative methodologies. He has contributed to major systemic reviews of educational reform and a wide variety of educational studies. Changing mobilities Series Editors: Monika Büscher, Peter Adey This series explores the transformations of society, politics and everyday experi- ences wrought by changing mobilities, and the power of mobilities research to inform constructive responses to these transformations. As a new mobile century is taking shape, international scholars explore motivations, experiences, insecu- rities, implications and limitations of mobile living, and opportunities and chal- lenges for design in the broadest sense, from policy to urban planning, new media and technology design. With world citizens expected to travel 105 billion kilometres per year in 2050, it is critical to make mobilities research and design inform each other. Elite Mobilities Edited by Thomas Birtchnell and Javier Caletrío Family Mobility Reconciling career opportunities and educational strategy Catherine Doherty, Wendy Patton, Paul Shield Forthcoming: Changing Mobilities Monika Büscher Cargomobilities Moving materials in a global age Edited by Thomas Birtchnell, Satya Savitzky and John Urry Italian Mobilities Edited by Ruth Ben- Ghiat and Stephanie Malia Hom Family Mobility Reconciling career opportunities and educational strategy Catherine Doherty, Wendy Patton and Paul Shield Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Catherine Doherty, Wendy Patton and Paul Shield The right of Catherine Doherty, Wendy Patton and Paul Shield to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Family mobility : reconciling career opportunities and educational strategy / edited by Catherine Doherty, Wendy Patton and Paul Shield. pages cm – (Changing mobilities) 1. Migration, Internal–Australia–Social aspects. 2. Educational sociology–Australia. 3. Occupational mobility–Australia–Social aspects. 4. Student mobility–Australia–Social aspects. 5. School choice–Australia. 6. Work and family–Australia. I. Doherty, Catherine Ann. II. Patton, Wendy, 1957- III. Shield, Paul. HB2135.F36 2014 304.80994–dc23 2014003125a ISBN: 978-0-415-71412-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-88286-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear To professionals working in rural and remote communities. To military families. This page intentionally left blank Contents List of figures x List of tables xi Acknowledgements xii 1 The family in more mobile times 1 The mobility imperative 2 Thinking about family as process 4 Thinking about projects and strategies 8 Thinking about career and work 10 Thinking about educational strategy 13 Coming from another angle 16 Thinking about mobilities from Australia 17 Thinking personally 18 An overview 20 2 Work/family/education articulations in space with mobility systems 23 Space and place as interactive context 23 Motility as a prerequisite 26 A case for viscosity 28 3 Making sense of mobility in family narratives 34 Thinking through narrative 34 Capturing family narratives of mobility 37 Mobility in the orientation 40 Mobility as complication 42 Mobility as resolution 43 Mobility in the coda 45 Re- placing family life 46 Moving emotions 53 Moving stories 55 viii Contents 4 Seeking continuity in circumstances not of our choosing 57 Military families research to date 59 Education systems and their institutional contradictions 60 Managing space and time 63 House or school first? Acquiring motility strategies 65 The educational complications of institutional discontinuities 69 Accumulating troubles in learning trajectories across space 87 Low viscosity settings 79 Protecting the future by manufacturing continuity 81 Accommodating spouse career aspirations 87 Waxing and waning motility 91 Conclusion 94 5 Optimising location in circumstances of our choosing 97 The optimising circuit 100 Variations on a theme 108 Counter- narratives 119 Professionals and institutional solutions to their selective mobility 126 Conclusion 129 6 Movers and stayers 132 Introducing the sampled professionals 132 Introducing the constructs 135 Measurement models of the constructs 138 Characteristics and attitudes of the more motile and mobile professionals 143 Reasons behind the decisions for moving and staying 145 The social trajectories of family relocations 149 Conclusion 150 7 Mobius markets 152 Demystifying the mobius 153 The social limits to credential society 154 Credentials for exchange value 156 Credentials for use value 159 Professional currency on the mobius market 161 Professional families moving in the mobius market 164 The interplay of factors in moving/staying 166 Conclusion 169 Contents ix 8 Professionals’ public/private dilemmas in rural service 171 Professional families and rural communities: a recursive im/mobility problem 171 Professions and the public good 172 Public/private dilemmas for teachers in rural and regional communities 174 Case 1: Public service at private cost 176 Case 2: Professional allegiance and private choice 177 Case 3: Professional insider knowledge in private choices 178 Case 4: Private risks in public service 178 Reconciling neoliberal and public good value sets 179 Conclusion: the private limits to public service in small communities 183 9 Families moving on to get ahead 186 Mobility as a lens on family 187 Family as a lens on mobility 189 Family mobility as a lens on career/work studies 190 Family mobility as a lens on educational markets 192 Family mobility as a lens on the mobile society 195 Family mobility as a lens on workforce mobility policy 195 Conclusion 198 Appendix 1: Original item sets for their corresponding constructs 200 Bibliography 202 Index 215
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