5
women and like other sensitive topics, for e.g. body-size (Guendouzi, forthcoming), relies
upon cooperative talk and audience support.
Methodology and Data
The data examined here is taken from a corpus of audio-taped recordings
collected over a period of approximately seven months. The participants consisted of two
groups of working mothers; teachers who audio-taped their recess break conversations
and a group of women of varied professions who gathered at the school gates when
collecting their children. The teachers were in control of audio-recording their own
sessions and the researcher was not present at any time. The author was a participating
member of the schoolyard group and controlled the audio-recording sessions. The audio-
tapes were transcribed by the researcher (see Appendix 1. for transcription conventions)
and a post-recording check with members of the teachers’ group was carried out to ensure
‘accurate’ transcription of the conversations.
Drawing on methods associated with discursive psychology (Potter & Wetherell,
1987) and traditional discourse studies (van Dijk, 1987; Guendouzi, 2001; forthcoming)
the analysis will consider the themes of social identity that emerge from the women’s
conversations and examine the ways in which the women discursively manage their
individual presentation of ‘self’ within the talk. In particular, this paper will examine the
women’s conversations to explore the social identity of the ‘good mother’ and consider
the impact that trying to live up to this social ideal has upon working women’s lives.
Convention