Study of a public school in a small suburban district, “Swan,” which draws mostly white middle-class students with some white working-class and some Black (about ten percent are from middle-class African American families). Participant observation in Swan from April to June by Lareau of a third-grade classroom of Ms. DeColli
One half-time research assistant (RA) for help with library work and general project management (but not fieldwork)
Spring 1993: decide to hire RAs for fieldwork
1993–94
Hire five RAs (four white women and one Black woman)
Experienced RA from 1992–93 moves to Midwest but returns for retreats and acts as an advisor and consultant to remaining RAs
Spend one month training RAs
One RA visits Swan fourth grade of Ms. Nettles
Occasional visits to Lower Richmond fourth grades: Mr. Tier, Ms. Bernstein, and Ms. Stanton
RAs and Lareau carry out in-depth interviews for separate interviews with mothers, fathers, and guardians from Lower Richmond and Swan (equal numbers of white and Black children) of 40 families, mostly from classrooms where there have been observations (one RA quits in December)
November: choose 12 families for intensive visits
December/January: complete Carroll, Brindle, and Handlon. Plan to visit 12–14 times for two to three hours per visit and go with the families on outings (i.e., doctor, dentist, church); plan to carry out exit interviews with target child, siblings, mother, and father or guardian
January: revise plan to visit 20 times, usually in the space of one month, often daily, as well as interview
February-May: complete Driver, Irwin, and Yanelli; start Tallinger
June: RAs scatter (one quits grad school and moves to New York, one moves to LA, and two work on comprehensive exams)
Summer 1994
Hire two new research assistants (one white woman and one African American man)
Finish Tallinger, start and finish Mcallister and Taylor, and start Williams
Summer 1995
One research assistant returns (white woman; African American man has moved to Boston); hire three additional research assistants (a white woman, a white man, and a Black woman)
Start and finish Marshall and Greeley; finish Williams
Summer 1996
Read field notes, analyze data
Transcribe interviews; write papers
Spring and Summer 1997
Present results in several talks
Receive feedback; begin to revise approach
Recruit 17 additional families (mostly black middle-class families and white poor families) for interviews, bringing final sample to 88 families
Summer 1998
Continue data analysis, writing papers, and revise
Begin book
Spring, Summer, Fall 1999
Draft first chapters for the book
Receive writing grant for fall semester; released from teaching
2000
Complete draft of five chapters; begin review process
2001
Revise draft; cut length by one-half; add five more chapters
Finish complete copy of book; do second review
2002
Complete revisions
TABLE C10. OCCUPATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULT MEMBERS OF FAMILIES IN THE STUDY
APPENDIX D
Tables for the Second Edition
TABLE D1. SELECTED LIFE CHARACTERISTICS OF INTENSIVE STUDY CHILD PARTICIPANTS, AT AGE 20–21
TABLE D2. STATUS OF SIBLINGS OF THE INTENSIVE STUDY CHILD PARTICIPANTS, TEN YEARS AFTER ORIGINAL STUDY
TABLE D3. SELECTED LIFE CHARACTERISTICS OF PARENTS OF INTENSIVE STUDY CHILD PARTICIPANTS, TEN YEARS AFTER ORIGINAL STUDY
Notes
CHAPTER 1: CONCERTED CULTIVATION
1. Choosing words to describe social groups also becomes a source of worry, especially over the possibility of reinforcing negative stereotypes. I found the available terms to describe members of racial and ethnic groups to be problematic in one way or another. The families I visited uniformly described themselves as “Black.” Recognizing that some readers have strong views that Black should be capitalized, I have followed that convention, despite the lack of symmetry with the term white. In sum, this book alternates among the terms “Black,” “Black American,” “African American,” and “white,” with the understanding that “white” here refers to the subgroup of non-Hispanic whites.
2. Some readers have expressed concern that this phrase, “the accomplishment of natural growth,” underemphasizes all the labor that mothers and fathers do to take care of children. They correctly note that working-class and poor parents themselves would be unlikely to use such a term to describe the process of caring for children. These concerns are important. As I stress in the text (especially in the chapter on Katie Brindle, Chapter 5) it does take an enormous amount of work for parents, especially mothers, of all classes to take care of children. But poor and working-class mothers have fewer resources with which to negotiate these demands. Those whose lives the research assistants and I studied approached the task somewhat differently than did middle-class parents. They did not seem to view children’s leisure time as their responsibility; nor did they see themselves as responsible for assertively intervening in their children’s school experiences. Rather, the working-class and poor parents carried out their chores, drew boundaries and restrictions around their children, and then, within these limits, allowed their children to carry out their lives. It is in this sense that I use the term “the accomplishment of natural growth.”
3. I define a child-rearing context to include the routines of daily life, the dispositions of daily life, or the “habitus” of daily life. I focus on two contexts: concerted cultivation and the accomplishment of natural growth. In this book, I primarily use the concept of child rearing, but at times I also use the term socialization. Many sociologists have vigorously criticized this concept, noting that it suggests (inaccurately) that children are passive rather than active agents and that the relationship between parents and their children is unidirectional rather than reciprocal and dynamic. See, for example, William Corsaro, Sociology of Childhood; Barrie Thorne, Gender Play; and Glen Elder, “The Life Course as Development Theory.” Nonetheless, existing terms can, ideally, be revitalized to offer more sophisticated understandings of social processes. Child rearing and socialization have the virtue of being relatively succinct and less jargon laden than other alternatives. As a result, I use them.
4. For discussions of the role of professionals, see Eliot Freidson, Professional Powers; Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism; and, although quite old, the still valuable collection by Amitai Etzioni, The Semi-Professionals and Their Organizations. Of course, professional standards are always contested and are subject to change over time. I do not mean to suggest there are not pockets of resistance and contestation. At the most general level, however, there is virtually uniform support for the idea that parents should talk to children at length, read to children, and take a proactive, assertive role in medical care.