My SSHRC-funded research focuses on parenting magazine advice, on the topics of children's leisure time, child safety, children's body weight and food. My work examines how parents respond to parenting advice, to understand the ways that parents interpret, disregard or absorb this advice. 

"Parental Guidance: Expert Advice and How Parents Respond to It" (Value: $66,584.00)

SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2019 (Co-applicant: J. Aurini, University of Waterloo; Collaborator: S. Howells, University of Guelph).

Articles in Refereed Journals

• Muñoz, V.L. and L. Quirke. “The Joy of Foodwork: Allergies, Gendered Foodwork and Emotion Work in Parenting Advice, 1991-2020” Food, Culture and Society. (Forthcoming.)
• Dixon, S. and L. Quirke. “What's the Harm? The Coverage of Ethics and Harm Avoidance in Research Methods Textbooks” Teaching Sociology. 46(1): 12-24, 2018.
• Pizarro Milian, R. and L. Quirke. “Crafting Legitimate Identities: Promotional Strategies in the Ontario Non-Elite Private School Sector” Educational Studies. 53(4): 342-358, 2017.
• Pizarro Milian, R. and L. Quirke. “Alternative Pathways to Legitimacy: Promotional Practices in the Ontario For-Profit College Sector” Journal of Marketing for Higher Education. 27(1): 77-98, 2017.
• Quirke, L. “‘Fat-Proof Your Child’: Parenting Advice and Child Obesity” Fat Studies. 5(2): 137-55, 2016.
• Dixon, S. and L. Quirke. “Looking for Work: The Coverage of Work in Canadian Introductory Sociology Textbooks” Teaching Sociology. 42(3): 207-19, 2014.
• Quirke, L. “Rogue Resistance: Sidestepping Isomorphic Pressures in a Patchy Institutional Field”. Organization Studies. 34(11): 1675-99, 2013.
• Aurini, J. and L. Quirke. “Does Market Competition Encourage Strategic Action in the Private Education Sector?” Canadian Journal of Sociology. 36(3): 173-197, 2011.
• Quirke, L. Legitimacy through Alternate Means: Schools Without Professionals in the Private Sector. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 30(5): 621-634, 2009.
• Davies, S. and L. Quirke. “The Impact of Sector on School Organizations: Institutional and Market Logics” Sociology of Education. 80(1): 66-89, 2007.
• Quirke, L. “‘Keeping Young Minds Sharp’: Children’s Cognitive Stimulation and the Rise of Parenting Magazines, 1959-2003” Canadian Review of Sociology. 43(4): 387-406, 2006.
• Davies, S. and L. Quirke. “Providing for the Priceless Student: Ideologies of Choice in an Emerging Educational Market” American Journal of Education. 111(4): 523-547, 2005.
• Quirke, L. and S. Davies. “The New Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: The Impact of Tuition Increases at an Ontario University” Canadian Journal of Higher Education. 32(3): 85-110, 2002.

Chapters in Refereed Books

• Quirke, L. and J. Aurini. “‘Teachers Can’t Be Made, They’re Born’: Teaching and Professionalism in Ontario’s Private Education Sector” in W. Lehmann (ed.) Education and Society: Canadian Perspectives. (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• Davies, S., L. Quirke and J. Aurini. “The New Institutionalism Goes to the Market: The Challenge of Rapid Growth in Private K-12 Education.” in H-D. Meyer and B. Rowan (eds.) The New Institutionalism in Education (SUNY Press, 2006) pp. 103-122.
• Davies, S. and L. Quirke. “Innovation in Educational Markets: An Organizational Analysis of Third Sector Private Schools in Toronto.” in M. Hallinan (ed.) School Sector and Student Outcomes (Notre Dame Press, 2006) pp. 39-72.

• SY280: Quantitative Methods
• SY489: Advanced Qualitative Methods
• SY423: Children, Parents and Schools
• SY314: Time Diaries and Content Analysis
• SY303: Sociology of Youth
• SY201: Sociology of Families