“The time-plan has been ousted and is now in the garage”: Family life and homework in stories about COVID-19

• Main Authors: Rúdólfsdóttir, Annadís Greta, Auðardóttir, Auður Magndís
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2021
• Subjects: parenting; homework; neoliberalism; COVID-19; story-completion method; Nýfrjálshyggja; foreldrahlutverkið; sögulokaaðferð; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/3332

In Western societies the role of the parent has increasingly been framed by neoliberal discourses. The focus is on the parent, especially the professional middle-class mother, as an entrepreneur who makes choices and trains the child with an eye to how it can maximize its potential and become a good citizen. This places a strain on parents, especially working mothers, who juggle their parenting responsibilities with their work outside the home. The COVID-19 epidemic upset these juggling acts and the fine-tuned daily rhythms of many families. In April, 2020, when the study took place, Iceland was in semi-lockdown, with schools running at limited capacity and a ban of gatherings of more than 20 people. Furthermore, many parents did not have access to their usual support in terms of childcare. These times without “precedent” thus provided an interesting moment to explore constructions of parenting, especially in relation to parents’ role in their children’s education and how at times contradictory demands from the home and work were met.This article adopts a feminist poststructuralist perspective to analyse ideas about parenting roles in relation to children’s homework during the COVID-19 epidemic in Iceland. Data was collected using the story-completion method during the period April 7–24, 2020, when a national emergency had been declared in Iceland because of the Corona virus. The story completion method is useful as it provides insight into the sociocultural ideas and discourses people draw on when making sense of a topic. The participants were approached on social media where they were provided with a link directing them to the task on Qualtrics. There the participants were randomly presented with either of two different story stems and asked to complete a story. In the first story stem the main fictional character is a mother who is informed that her children will only be able to stay 2 hours per day at school and she is sent ideas for homework to work on with her children. The other story stem is identical ...