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‘ People think it’s not the real world - but it’s our world’ The significance of relationships found on the threshold between the private and the public: Exploring engagement between mothers and early years practitioners in a changing Ireland./ [PhD thesis] |
Garrity, Sheila
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Irish society
has undergone
significant economic and social transformation
in the past
two decades
.
The rapid development of the early years sector, supporting
unprecedented levels of female employment, is indicative of this transformation.
While the use of
early years
services can be perceived as a functional act, the process
is also an emotional one, as
a
parent’s basic obligation to care is transferred to another.
This thesis focuse
s
on these newly established social and familial behaviours
, offering
an exploration o
f relationships between parents and childcare practitioners,
within a
changing Irish context.
The exploratory approach to research employed an ethnographic methodology,
underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology to investigate these under
-
studie
d relationships. The research findings were analysed through the theoretical lens
of the ethic of care, as well as drawing on theories and literature from relevant areas.
Key research findings reveal ideas and concepts that support an understanding of the
nature of the relationships under study: the concept of trust and its enigmatic
construction in these relationships; the responsive, interdependent nature of the
relationships; the community aspect, representing a process and potential outcome of
these rel
ationships, as well as suggesting a micro
-
level context within which these
actors engage; the marketplace highlights the broader context, and the repositioning
of care from the private/domestic realm to the public/productive realm; the concept of
an evolvi
ng maternal identity underpins the proposed developmental process and
illustrative model suggesting both temporal and functional elements to these
relationships.
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Keyword(s):
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RESEARCH; MOTHER; SOCIAL SUPPORT; CARER |
Publication Date:
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2014 |
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Type:
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Doctoral thesis |
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Peer-Reviewed:
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Unknown |
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Language(s):
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English |
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Institution:
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Lenus |
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Publisher(s):
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College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway |
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Supervisor(s):
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National University of Ireland, Galway |
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Related Link(s):
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http://hdl.handle.net/10379/4216 |
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First Indexed:
2014-04-03 06:40:42 Last Updated:
2017-05-12 06:34:36 |
