‘It’s an adjustment’: The experiences of stay-at-home mothers in graduate teacher education programs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18741/jpcoe37Keywords:
stay-at-home mothers, graduate teacher educationAbstract
It is important that teacher education programs be aware of their students’ lives and experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. This is especially true in the case of students who are also stay-at-home mothers who are trying to balance the demands of their personal and professional lives and to adjust to the differing expectations for each. This study was designed to explore the experiences of 10 stay-at-home mothers who decided to return to school to become teachers. Results indicate that the students felt that motherhood helped them to be more tolerant and understanding, but that it was often difficult to balance their dual roles of mother and student. Implications for graduate teacher education programs and recommendations for future research are discussed.
References
Bradburn, E.M., Moen, P., & Dempster-McClain D. (1995). Women’s return to school following the transition to motherhood. Social Forces, 74, 1517-1551.
Carney-Crompton, S., & Tan, J. (2002). Support systems, psychological functioning, and academic performance of nontraditional female students. Adult Education Quarterly, 52, 140–154.
Cohany, S.R., & Sok, E. (2007). Trends in labor force participation of married mothers of infants. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2007/02/art2full.pdf
Cowan, J., Goldhaber, D., Hayes, K., & Theobald, R. (2016). Missing elements in the discussion of teacher shortages. Educational Researcher, 45, 460-462.
Duncan, D. (2000). The socialisation of mature women student teachers: The importance of ethnographic accounts to educational research. Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 459–475.
Exposito, S. & Bernheimer, S. (2012). Nontraditional students and institutions of higher education: A conceptual framework. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 33, 178–189.
Freeman, C. (2004). Trends in educational equity of girls & women: 2004. Retrieved April 2017 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005016.pdf
Galley, J. (2014, September). Stay-at-home mothers through the years. Monthly Labor Report. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Galman, S.C., & Mallozzi, C.A. (2012). She's not there: Women and gender as disappearing foci in U.S. research on the elementary school teacher, 1995 - Present. Review of Educational Research, 82, 243-295.
Gibbs, G. R. (2007). Thematic coding and categorizing. Analyzing Qualitative Data. London: SAGE Publications.
Gilbert, J. (2008). Why I feel guilty all the time: Performing academic motherhood. Women’s Studies in Communication, 31, 203–208.
Grenier, R.S., & Burke, M.C. (2008). No margin for error: A study of two women balancing motherhood and Ph.D. studies. The Qualitative Report, 13, 581-604.
Holm, J. M., Prosek, E. A., & Godwin Weisberger, A. C. (2015). A phenomenological investigation of counseling doctoral students becoming mothers. Counselor Education & Supervision, 54, 2-16.
Husser, W. J., & Bailey, T. M. (2011). Projections of education statistics to 2019. Retrieved May 2017 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011017.pdf
James, J.H. (2010). Teachers as mothers in the elementary classroom: Negotiating the needs of self and other. Gender and Education, 22, 521–534.
Kuperberg, A. (2009). Motherhood and graduate education: 1970–2000. Population Research and Policy Review, 28, 473–504.
Lipets, J. (2014). Why did you become a teacher? Educational Leadership, 71, 9.
Lozinak, K. (2016) Mentor matching does matter. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 83, 12-24.
Lynch, K.D. (2008). Gender roles and the American academe: A case study of graduate student mothers. Gender and Education, 20, 585-605.
Mahaffey, B.A., Hungerford, G., & Sill, S. (2015). College student mother needs at regional campuses: An exploratory study. AURCO Journal, 21, 105-127.
Mottarella, K.E., Fritzsche, B.A., Whitten, S.N., & Bedsole, D. (2009). Exploration of “Good Mother” stereotypes in college education. Sex Roles, 60, 223-231.
Snyder, T.D., & Dillow, S. A. (2011). Digest of Education Statistics. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012001
Suitor, J.J., Plikuhn, M., Gilligan, M., & Powers, R.S. (2008). Unforeseen consequences of mothers’ return to school: Children’s educational aspirations and outcomes. Sociological Perspectives, 51, 495-513.
Thomson, R., & Kehily, M.J. (2011). Troubling reflexivity: The identity flows of teachers becoming mothers. Gender and Education, 23, 233-245.
van Rhijn, T., Lero, D.S., & Burke, T. (2016). Why go back to school? Investigating the motivations of student parents to pursue post-secondary education. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 28,14-26.
White, S. (2009). Mothers becoming teachers. What motivates them? What doesn’t? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13, 79-92.
White, S. (2008). Mothers who are student teachers: Navigating their dual roles in pre-service teacher education, Studies in Continuing Education, 30, 159-172.
Zorn-Arnold, B., & Conaway, W. (2016). The keys to online learning for adults. Distance Learning,13, 1-5.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Karrin Lukacs
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license applies to all works published by the Journal of Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (JPCOE). Authors will retain copyright of the work.
