Experiences of MotherScholars During the Pandemic: A Comparative Case Study of Faculty in the United States and Australia

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session. The Faculty Work Life Needs of Mother-Scholars in the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction/Purpose
For tenure-track academics, the months leading up to submission of the dossier is regarded as a time of higher than usual job-related stress and anxiety (Canetto, Trott, Winterrowd, Haruyama, & Johnson, 2017). Moreover, MotherScholars may experience additional layers of stress and anxiety as research suggests that academic women with children are likely to experience difficulties achieving work/life balance (Armenti, 2004; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004; 2012). For many MotherScholars, balancing work and family hinges on the ability to maintain predictable schedules—disruptions can cause a domino effect, affecting several aspects of a MotherScholar’s life (Sallee & Blakewood Pascale, 2012; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2012).

Framework
Psychologist William Goode (1960) introduced a theory of role strain. Goode contended that people possess many roles, that each role comes with a set of role demands, and a persons’ overall role system is over-demanding. Goode theorized that people experience role strain, prompting them to develop strategies to navigate situations when demands on time and resources from different roles are in conflict. As both mothers and scholars, we seek to understand the lived-experiences of women who, due to the extenuating circumstances of the pandemic, are navigating an extraordinary situation; a reality where competing roles are placing simultaneous and demanding pressure for priority. Specifically, we aim to understand how MotherScholar tenure candidates experienced the pandemic.

Methods
To investigate this phenomenon, we propose to employ an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith et al.,1999). With sociological constructivist epistemological underpinnings, this approach is appropriate for three reasons. First, the goal of IPA is “to explore in detail the participant’s view of the topic under investigation” (p. 218). IPA recognizes the “research process to be a dynamic exercise” (p. 219). Lastly, IPA is positioned differently from other phenomenological approaches in that, similar to Van Mannen’s (2014) description of interpretation as “involved” as opposed to “bracketed” (Moustakas, 1994), IPA involves a toggle between the participants’ sense making of their own experience, and the researchers interpretation of the participants’ meaning making process—termed a “double hermeneutic” (Smith & Osborn, 2009, p. 53). As MotherScholar tenure candidates ourselves, IPA was determined to be an appropriate methodological approach that was consistent with our epistemological and contextual perspectives.

Data Sources
We propose to collect data via two, in-depth, semi-structured, interviews using an online web conferencing tool. Participants will be women faculty with at least one child under the age of 18 living at home, and who will submit their tenure dossier in the Fall of 2020. Interviews will range between one to three hours, and will take place in mid-July, 2020, and again in mid-August, 2020. Interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed (Smith, Jarman, & Osborn, 1999).

Findings Significance
Findings from this study could be important in understanding how the academy can better support MotherScholars. The magnitude of disruption and abrupt onset of the pandemic provides an opportunity to explore the tenure-seeking process of MotherScholars, in a time when competing demands for their time are circumstantially heightend. Implications for practice and policy will be discussed in light of the findings.

Authors

• Amanda Blakewood Pascale, University of North Florida

• Suzanne M Ehrlich, University of North Florida

• Kristen K Hicks-Roof, University of North Florida