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Graduate Student Parents in Kazakhstan

Mon, April 15, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Bay (Level 1), Bayview B

Proposal

Recruitment, retention, and access for students and faculty are central to supporting the future of an equitable higher education pipeline (from graduate school through full professor/lecturer). Understanding these experiences provides a means to address the historically male, elite university system. For example, many institutions of education are (re)developing structural and organizational supports for those most vulnerable, such as to properly include people from varied ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, those with different physical and cognitive abilities, and those with children. For graduate students with children, the challenges have shown themselves as unique and potentially problematic, especially for women who traditionally act as primary caretakers.
Throughout the world, women consistently are not promoted along the academic ranks from assistant, associate to full professor, both in the United States and internationally. The problems of promotion are considered as “leaks” in the academic pipeline, a concern for women and one exacerbated for those who are also mothers. The lack of gender parity within the professoriate is a problem for equality and equity. For parents in academia, there are particular challenges that are often overlooked within a university structure based upon the growing demand to work after hours (e.g., teaching online, evening, etc.). For mothers, there is a “motherhood penalty” which associates women as being less capable once they become mothers. The lack of gender parity in the workplace in general, and in academia in particular, has been noted as a problem throughout the world.
In order to support the long term cost of education, especially within higher education, it is key to understand and create systems to ensure the success of students and faculty. While there is a growing body of literature examining the nature of gender inequity as well as the experiences of academic parents in Western contexts, there is little data examining this same population in Central Asia. Furthermore, there are no known studies exploring the experiences of graduate student parents and their gendered experienced (if present) within the university. Drawing from previous research on academic mothers, the researchers designed the study using Post-structural feminist theory as a framework for research design, analysis and findings. This theoretical framework and former studies also influenced the development of the mixed-methods research design through the creation of the quantitative survey distributed amongst the top 19 largest universities in Kazakhstan and the qualitative follow-up semi-structured, video interviews. Analysis was conducted across both sets of data in an iterative manner. Preliminary findings suggest similar finding to international studies in the academic pipeline, demonstrating the multilayered challenges faced by mothers in academia, that are not present for fathers in academia. The lack of institutional supports was the largest constraint while the familial and governmental support for childcare was seen as the largest supporter. In understanding these experiences and their gendered nature (if at all), future studies can further explore how universities can be better situated to improve equity in academia through supporting all graduate students.

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