Clashing Cultures: The Subjugated Narratives of Student Mothers Navigating Paternalism and Individuality

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Emerging Research on Society, Culture, and Change (San Diego)

Abstract

I highlight the subjugated narratives of mothers attending an elite public institution with a particular focus on the conflicting institutional and individual cultures and students’ coping strategies while in college. This paper interrogates the tension between the university rhetoric of “independence,” “creativity,” and “autonomy” with the paternalistic language embedded within welfare-to-work programs from both materials and caseworkers, such as “sanctions,” “shame,” and “stigma.” Their narratives illuminate the micro-processes at play in the decision-making strategies of low-income student mothers which allows us to start to understand how elite college institutions do or do not serve as “the great equalizer” for nontraditional students.

Author

• Briana Nicole Starks, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor