Brain science and early years policy: hopeful ethos or 'cruel optimism'?
Rosalind Edwards
Val Gillies
Nicola Horsley
2134/21559
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Brain_science_and_early_years_policy_hopeful_ethos_or_cruel_optimism_/9472526
Ideas that the quality of parental nurturing and attachment in the first years of a child’s life is formative, hard-wiring their brains for success or failure, are reflected in policy reports from across the political spectrum and in targeted services delivering early intervention. In this article we draw on our research into ‘Brain science and early intervention’, using reviews of key policy literature and interviews with influential advocates of early intervention and with early years practitioners, to critically assess the ramifications and implications of these claims. Rather than upholding the ‘hopeful ethos’ proffered by advocates of the progressive nature of brain science and early intervention, we show that brain claims are justifying gendered, raced and social inequalities, positioning poor mothers as architects of their children’s deprivation.
2016-06-09 13:07:50
Early intervention
Infant brain
Mothering
Neuroscience
Class
Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified