8
although she ‘actively’ protects her own children she still seeks to instill the correct ‘non-
aggressive’ social values in their own behavior.
Success and social capital, ‘the proud mother’.
Acquiring social capital through association with a child's success or achievement
was a frequent conversational strategy amongst both the playground mothers and the
teachers.
Extract 3
118
Ann: no John’s running in the welsh championships
CSC
119
Alice: is that the local Welsh school
RI
120
Ann:
no well (.) it’s all the county schools it’s their Athletics Championship in
121
Cardiff
CSC
122
Alice: what local Welsh speaking?
RI
123 Ann:
not just Welsh speaking schools ALL the Welsh schools
SE + CSC
In Extract 4, Ann notes that her son has been selected to run for the County in the
National Track and Field Championships. When Alice seeks clarification of Ann’s
remark, it is evident from the way Ann stresses the adverb ‘all’ that it is important the
other mothers realize this is not a local athletics meeting, but a prestigious national event.
Her son’s success allows Ann to discursively claim social capital through associated
prestige and infer she is a good mother, because she raises successful children.
Convention