Mother (Space) Scholar (Space)

• In Event: 47.067 - On Tiptoe and Tightrope: Motherscholars Recalibrating Evidence of Truth and Reimaging Hope in Educational Research

Abstract

Mother (space) scholar (space)/ . . .Every time I write who I am/
The computer autocorrects me as a reminder that who I have become/
is grammatically and otherwise incorrect. -Author 1

This performative paper shares visual and poetic representations to illuminate practices of revolutionary mothering as acts of love giving birth to openings where justice may take root in our teaching, research, and personal lives. We, three motherscholars—one black and single and two white raising biracial children with black men, illustrate how we bring our mothering selves to nepantla, the space where theory and research are intertwined (Anzaldua, 2009). In the dangerous territory of fabricated truth, we mobilize the love languages of resistance and community by amplifying the diverse experiences of marginalized communities and vaulting our own epistemological divides. As motherscholars, we believe the greatest act of love and justice in teaching and research is to collaborate with others in making their truths visible.
We theorize our work as motherscholars through the postcolonial womanist ideas of critical race parenting and revolutionary mothering (Gumbs, Martens, & Williams, 2016; Matias, 2016). We use poetic inquiry to ask: (1) How do we cultivate and sustain the labor of revolutionary mothering in schools and communities where the lives of children of color are marked by lashes of slander and slaughter? (2) What can we discover when we think through poetry about the soul-work of revolutionary mothering?
Poetic inquiry is a powerful form of analysis whereby researchers can “understand data, and themselves, in different and more complex ways” (Prendergrast, Leggo, & Sameshima, 2009, p. xxviii). Our poetic process bridges our work and our lives and serves as an analytical framework for forefronting the power of motherscholaring. We asked ourselves questions about the intersectional spaces of race in the education of our children, specifically about religion, age and cross-racial parenting. Data sources included daily writings collected and shared over the course of two years. As a group we had six meetings to collectively analyze our poetry, where we created collaborative pieces through poetic inquiry techniques including black-out poetry, poetic transcription, and found poetry (Prendergrast et al., 2009). Our work as motherscholars is always in process, however our early findings uncover new ways to inquire poetically and create communities in doing the brave work to confront the refusal to relinquish hope in a public education that honors all of our children.
Poetic inquiry allows us as researchers to create essential bridges between the personal and the professional. We argue that “Poetry is not a luxury” (Lorde, 2007), it is a process of self-care and survival, and it embodies an epistemological contribution where knowledge is generated through poetry. In an increasingly static and narrow definition of what it means to teach, poetic inquiry exemplifies for teachers and pre-service teachers the deep relationship between theory, practice and community. Since “mothering is love by any means necessary” (Gumbs, et al, 2016, p. xii), committing to such emancipatory, resistive, and just practices requires emotional work best mediated through the poetic expressions of motherscholaring.

Authors

• Candace Marie Thompson, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Kindel Turner Nash, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Joy Howard, University of Southern Indiana