A First‐class Environment? Working‐class playgroups as preschool experience

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Abstract
This article examines the voluntary, non‐profit‐making playgroup as a ‘self‐help’ alternative to nursery education. It is an alternative increasingly favoured by governments as an initiative to accompany cuts in state‐funded services. The article presents data from a small‐scale, longitudinal and qualitative study of self‐help playgroups in inner city areas on council estates. It shows that the form and character which these groups take means that they cannot be regarded as an alternative to nursery schools in the provision of preschool education, which is what parents wish them to be. Working‐class women cannot produce self‐help nursery education when they lack the material and cultural resources, nor should they be expected to do so.

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