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Chapter 6
139
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1847-2.ch006
ABSTRACT
Globalization and its imminent efect on education have received attention in recent
years. Less widely acknowledged is the discussion of the role of middle-class mothers
who are stuck amidst the changes in their children’s education and future. With
the aid of in-depth face-to-face interviews and extensive participant observation
in Kolkata, this chapter examines how middle-class mothers resort to commercial
solutions to help manage their crisis in a neoliberal India. The crisis managers in
the form of “mom-schooling” agencies support and coach mothers to negotiate
with the changing education system and parenting methods that have become highly
Americanized. In this chapter, the author uses Bourdieu’s theory of conversion of
capital to argue that mothers in Kolkata are acting as “converters” of capital with
the help of commercial mom-schools by converting economic capital to a distinct
form of cultural capital that they transfer to their children for the latter’s success
in a global economy.
INTRODUCTION
The discourse on globalization has rendered its attention on education to a large
extent. In the light of evaluating globalization’s effect on education the focus has
been on schools and various other institutions. Rarely have researchers focused
Mommy Knows?
A Critical Study of “Mom-Schools”
and Formal Education in Kolkata
Madhurima Das
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India