Inside, Outside, Upside Down: Mother-Scholars Navigating the World of Education

• In Event: Women Education Scholars and Their Children's Schooling

Abstract

Our research examines the unique dual role we occupy as mothers and scholars in the field of education (Claesson & Brice, 1989; Tiedje, Wortman, Downey, Emmons, Biernat & Lang, 1990). In Mother-Scholar: (Re)imagining K-12 Education, Yvonne Lapayese (2012) presents mother-scholars as “embodying not only the maternal subject in the private sphere, but also the intellectual subject in a discipline that focuses primarily on children” (p.7), putting mother-education-scholars in an interesting position as participant observers in two worlds that at times mesh and at other times collide.
In this poster, we will outline the benefits and challenges we experience in the context of our daughters’ schooling and in our professional lives as education scholars. Our guiding questions include:
1. How does our position as education scholars benefit us within the context of our daughters’ schools?
2. What tensions or conflict do we experience in the context of our daughters’ schools?
3. What are similarities and differences in our experience as mother-education-scholars with typically and atypically developing children?

We are early childhood teacher education professors from similar demographic backgrounds with daughters in two different suburban public elementary school districts. One of us is the mother of a typically developing daughter in 6th grade, and the other is the mother of a daughter with special needs in 6th grade and a typically developing daughter in 4th grade.
We utilize collaborative autoethnography (Chang, Ngunjiri, & Hernanadez, 2013) to collect and analyze our data. Through an iterative process examining and relating our narratives, we found and will present four interrelated themes that characterize our experience as mother-education-scholars.
The first theme is Navigating the border between insider and outsider. This theme reflects our recognition of the benefits and cultural capital we gain from our insiders’ understanding of the hegemonic structure of schools and the discourse of the field. Our second theme is Curricular & philosophical tensions. As mother-education- scholars, we experience radical divergence between the theory and best practices we know (and teach) as early childhood education scholars and the practices we see in our daughters’ schools. Our third theme is Advocacy or acceptance. We found that due to our unique positions as mother-education-scholars, we “choose our battles.” We accept curricular stances and practices that run counter to our own, but only to a point. When certain lines are crossed, we are staunch advocates for our daughters’ (and all children’s) education. The last theme we identify, Negotiating the dual roles of the professional-public self and the private-personal self, flows from our previous three themes. This theme addresses the challenge of trying to find balance (and sometimes separation) between the two worlds - mother and scholar.
In our presentation, we will present the four themes with examples from our data. We will highlight the similarities and differences we face as mothers of typical and atypical developing children. We will provide ideas for ways as mother-scholars we can positively impact the public discourse about families with children with disabilities, as well as the discourse around mothers in academia.

Authors

• Jody L. Eberly, The College of New Jersey

• Louise S. Ammentorp, The College of New Jersey