At the same time as the number of lone mother families has been increasing,
education policy has demanded more involvement in children's
schooling from ‘parents’ (i.e., mothers). Social policy in this area is inherently
contradictory, encouraging lone mothers into paid employment on
the one hand, whilst imploring mothers to ‘help’ in (and out of) the classroom
on the other. Whilst lone mothers become scapegoats for all societal
ills, parental involvement schemes are seen to solve society's ‘problems’.
Drawing on data from a research project, this article begins to examine
the contradictions within and between these policies for low income lone
mothers.