| Popis: |
Mothers are a significant but overlooked subpopulation of college students. One-fourth of all undergraduate students are parents raising children, and the vast majority of these parents are women, yet very few research studies have been conducted on parents or mothers in higher education. This narrative inquiry study looks at how mother-students narrate the lived experiences of being a mother and a student. Participants are first-generation college students who are successful students on commuter campuses. The intersecting locations of these participants on the constructs of class, gender, and race are examined here. Bourdieu’s social class theories are used to examine these participants’ lower social class placement, such as limited financial resources, limiting habitus, and less valuable social and cultural capital. Standpoint feminism theories are used to understand these participants as women and mothers. Whiteness theories of race are used to acknowledge the participants’ location on this construct. A raced and classed notion of motherhood (Collins, 2009; Griffith & Smith, 2005; hooks, 1984) is used as a lens to understand these mother-students’ mothering discourse. This hegemonic view of motherhood, which envisions mothers as middle or upper class, white, married, not working, and parenting alone, is embraced by these participants. However, these women are all full-time students, half work part time, half are single, all have limited economic and other resources, and many have mental health issues themselves or in a family member. These participants experience overwhelming stress from their use of this mothering discourse without the presumed resources. Yet they are still somehow succeeding as college students. |
