TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain science and early years policy: Hopeful ethos or ‘cruel optimism’?
AU - Edwards, Rosalind
AU - Gillies, Val
AU - Horsley, Nicola
PY - 2015/5
Y1 - 2015/5
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018315574020
U2 - 10.1177/0261018315574020
DO - 10.1177/0261018315574020
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
SN - 0261-0183
JO - Critical Social Policy
JF - Critical Social Policy
ER -