29.047 - Balancing School and Parenthood: Utilizing Counternarratives to Discuss Parenting in Graduate School

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Compared to graduate students without children, graduate student parents are less likely to complete their degree, obtain a faculty position, and eventually earn tenure (Kennelly & Spalter-Roth, 2006). This institutionally diverse panel looks to extend the conversation regarding mother-scholarship to include father-scholars and family-scholars specific to parenthood. There exists a lack of scholarship regarding “motherhood/parenthood” focusing on graduate students. This panel attempts to bridge that gap and render visible the nuances of parenting as graduate students in academia. Our hope is to articulate the synergy between the intellect and the maternal through narrative, proclaiming that scholarly work in education is deepened through parental epistemologies.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 3: Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Lives: Lived Experiences, Identities, Socialization and Development

Chair

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Colorado - Denver

Papers

• De estudiantes a padres: The Transition of Two Latina/o Doctoral Students Into Parenthood - Jose Munoz, University of Missouri

• Mother, Scholar, Pro: A Complex of Meaning - Naomi Nishi, University of Colorado - Denver

• Single-Parent Home ... but I Have Two Parents! The Trauma and Guilt of Parenting in Graduate School - Roberto Montoya, University of Colorado - Denver

• What We Can't Bear to Know? The Inconsolability of Motherhood in the Academy - Amanda Parker, University of New Mexico

Discussant

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Colorado - Denver