The idea that some literacies “count” or are valued more than others is key to the concept of literacy as socially-situated practices rather than a universal skill. Similarly, mothering can be seen as a situated practice, rooted in the habitus of mothering that shapes “what counts” as good mothering and the forms of mothering that are possible and appropriate in diverse social and cultural contexts. In this way, mothering practices, like literacy practices, are connected to issues of “identity, power and access to particular institutions, communities and cultures” (Farrell, Luke, Shore & Waring, p. 1)

The goal in connecting literacy and mothering as socially-situated practices is not to support a view that mothering is naturally linked to literacy, or literacy to mothering, but to recognize that discourses of literacy advice implicitly make this link. The work of the good mother is implicit in the production of an ideal literate child. Bringing together a view of literacy and mothering as inter-connected socially situated practices allows for an analysis that retains the focus on institutional discourses of literacy advice to mothers, while avoiding essentializing all women as universally affected by, oppressed, or “cowed” by these discourses. As Hill Collins (1994) argued, representing mothers either as “good,” “bad,” “oppressed,” or more or less oppressed than other mothers, will not serve the important research interests of women:

Theorizing about motherhood will not be helped by supplanting one group’s theory for another; for example by claiming that women of colour’s experiences are more valid than those of white, middle class women. Varying placement in systems of privilege, whether race, class, sexuality, or age, generates divergent experiences with motherhood; therefore, examination of motherhood and mother-as-subject from multiple perspectives should uncover rich textures of difference. (p. 62)

In recognizing the “rich textures of difference” among mothering and literacy experiences, a socially-situated perspective makes space in the analysis of literacy advice discourses for the pleasure many women derive from reading to their children and supporting their literacy, while attending to the power effects of literacy advice discourses in reproducing gender and educational inequalities. This recognition of difference also allows, from a Foucauldian perspective, for a view of literacy advice as not only an oppressive form of power, but a productive one as well. Mothers may benefit from literacy advice, albeit in different ways, at different times, depending upon their diverse social locations. Indeed, as Mills (1997) pointed out, “problem pages” in advice magazines suggest that women take part in, and negotiate, mothering discourses, and part of negotiating a mothering discourse is finding a place for ourselves within the “reading community” (Mills, 1997, p. 92) of a particular magazine, book, website, or parent discussion group. I now turn to the analytic tools employed in this study to attend to the implications of a socially-situated perspective of mothering and literacy.