Brain_Science_and_Early_Years_Policy_Hop.pdf (197.42 kB)
Brain science and early years policy: hopeful ethos or 'cruel optimism'?
journal contribution
posted on 2016-06-09, 13:07 authored by Rosalind Edwards, Val Gillies, Nicola HorsleyIdeas 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.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
Critical Social PolicyVolume
35Issue
2Pages
167 - 187Citation
EDWARDS, R., GILLIES, V. and HORSLEY, N., 2015. Brain science and early years policy: hopeful ethos or 'cruel optimism'? Critical Social Policy, 35 (2), pp.167-187.Publisher
SAGE (© the authors)Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2015ISSN
0261-0183eISSN
1461-703XPublisher version
Language
- en