Microsoft Word - 354-99Z_Article Text-1416-4-11-20180920.docx Volume  2,  Issue  1   2018   Allies  for  Education  2018,  1,  2   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal   thinking  of  doctoral  student  mothers  and  their  quest   for  social  justice  in  and  through  education     Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Faculty,  School  of  Education  and  Graduate  Writing  Studio  Instructor   CSU  Channel  Islands     All  human  life  on  the  planet  is  born  of  woman.   Adrienne  Rich,  1976   In  the  book  The  Essential  Conversation:  What  parents  and  teachers  can  learn  from  each  other,   Lawrence-­‐Lightfoot  (2003)  devoted  a  chapter  to  exploring  the  intersection  of  parenting  and  teaching,   and  the  fragmented  roles  that  women,  in  particular,  experience  in  educating  children  and  young  people.   It  is  no  surprise  that  the  important  work  of  raising  and  educating  children  is  still  largely  pursued  by   women  in  an  economic  and  political  context  that  not  only  devalues  the  labour  of  caring  for  others  but   that  fails  to  recognize  the  importance  of  caretaking  and  educating  in  the  interest  of  the  common  good.   Many  of  the  teachers  interviewed  by  Lawrence-­‐Lightfoot  indicated  that  their  roles  as  mothers  had   implications  for  them  in  their  professional  lives.  Most  notably,  teachers  who  were  mothers  claimed  to   better  understand  the  complexities  of  childhood  development  and  of  learning,  and  felt  they  were  less   judgmental  and  more  forgiving  of  individual  foibles  among  both  students  and  parents.  As  one  teacher   indicated  when  she  became  a  mother,  “I  finally  recognized  the  way  in  which  mothering  breaks  your   heart”  (Lawrence-­‐Lightfoot,  2003,  p.  194).     This  article  explores  the  overlapping  and  intertwined  ways  in  which  mothering  informs  the  educational   endeavour  in  both  P12  and  higher  education  with  a  focus  on  maternal  thinking  and  the  role  of  mothers   in  advancing  social  justice.  While  Laurence-­‐Lightfoot  illuminated  the  lives  of  women  at  the  intersection   of  teaching  and  mothering  in  the  P12  context,  I  interrogated  the  multi-­‐dimensional  roles  of  doctoral   student  mothers  in  higher  education  (Pément,  2013).  This  narrative  inquiry  into  the  experiences  of  16   doctoral  student  mothers  in  the  United  States  was  guided  by  Rich’s  (1976)  notion  of  motherhood  as   both  experience  and  institution.  She  argued  that  motherhood  must  be  understood  in  two  contexts—one   that  is  grounded  in  personal  experience  and,  the  other,  that  recognizes  the  implications  of  the  political   institutions,  such  as  capitalism  and  patriarchy,  that  constrain  it.  Further,  this  work  was  informed  by   critical  feminism  (hooks,  1994,  1999)  that  acknowledges  gendered  power  differentials  (among  others),   On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal  thinking  of  doctoral  student   mothers  and  their  quest  for  social  justice  in  and  through  education   Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Allies  for  Education  2018,  2,  1   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     and  by  post-­‐structuralist  notions  which  suggest  there  cannot  be  any  theoretical,  research  or  pedagogical   efforts  without  questioning  what  it  means  to  teach  and  to  conduct  research  in  a  world  that  is   fundamentally  unjust  (Lather,  1991).     A  narrative  inquiry  is  a  qualitative  methodology  which  draws  upon  strategies  both  traditional  and   innovative,  with  opportunities  to  explore  new  ideas  and  to  ask  new  qualitative  questions  (Chase,  2008).   Narrative  researchers  pay  particular  attention  to  the  language,  the  stories,  and  lived  realities  as   expressed  by  participants  allowing  for  the  complexity  of  human  experience  to  shine.     In  in-­‐depth,  semi-­‐structured  interviews,  participants  told  me  about  their  experiences  as  mothers,  as   doctoral  students  and  as  professionals  in  education.  All  had  worked,  in  some  capacity,  in  schools,   colleges  or  at  universities  before  undertaking  their  doctorates  in  higher  education.  Their  ages  ranged   from  27  to  58  years  with  an  average  age  of  42  years.  Half  of  participants  identified  as  women  of  colour,   and  the  other  half  as  White.  Most  were  married.  Taken  together,  participants  were  actively  parenting  25   children.  The  average  age  of  their  children  was  approximately  12  years  old,  ranging  from  a  few  months   to  25  years  old.     I  met  doctoral  student  mothers  at  their  offices  on  university  campuses,  and  in  their  homes  as  they  cared   for  their  children.  Consistent  with  findings  reported  by  Lawrence-­‐Lightfoot  (2003),  the  realities  of   motherhood  informed  the  professional  lives  of  these  women  in  ways  that  were  both  overt  and  covert.   Not  surprisingly,  they  described  their  lives  as  deeply  enmeshed  with  those  of  their  children.  These   powerful  bonds  were  enacted  and  re-­‐enacted  in  schools  and  universities  everywhere.  What  follows  is   my  attempt  to  play  fair  witness  to  the  storied  experiences  of  doctoral  student  mothers  as  they  spoke   about  how  mothering  informed  their  thinking  as  well  as  their  quest  for  social  justice  on  behalf  of  their   own  and  other  people’s  children.     Mothering  and  Maternal  Thinking  as  Practice  and  Intellectual  Activity     Every  student  mother  with  whom  I  spoke  described  herself  as  a  lifelong  learner.  As  doctoral  students,   without  doubt,  educational  activities  were  prominent  in  their  lives.  However,  beyond  their  experiences   as  students,  these  women  relied  on  informal  and  formal  educational  strategies  to  enlighten  both  their   mothering  and  professional  practices.  Not  surprisingly,  however,  popular  discourse  is  replete  with   notions  that  implicitly  demean  the  learning  efforts  of  mothers.  Several  commonly-­‐held  views  in  popular   culture  are  crystallized  in  pejorative  language,  including  references  to  “mommy  brain”  or  “baby  brain”—   “a  modern  affliction…which  like  ‘senior  moment’  is  a  cheery  synonym  for  abrupt  mental  decline”   (Ellison,  2005,  p.  3).  In  discussing  her  transition  to  maternal  thinking,  Nichols  (2009)  shared  that  her   cognitive  style  changed  given  her  emerging  mothering  practices.  She  wrote,  “it  is  maternal  thought  that   has  become  my  dominant  style  and  that  by  struggling  with  the  internal  conflicts  of  maternal  practice  I   have  embraced  an  “outlaw”  [beyond  dominant  norms]  approach  to  mothering  which,  in  turn,  has   altered  my  approach  to  research”  (p.  231).  Indeed,  several  participants  told  stories  about  how  they   engaged  in  serious  research  efforts  to  learn  how  to  best  care  for  their  child  while  simultaneously   working  towards  their  doctorates.  For  example,  one  doctoral  student  mother  undertook  an  exhaustive   review  of  literature  regarding  pediatric  nutrition  when  she  discovered  her  child  had  food  allergies.   Others  mentioned  how  their  mothering  directly  informed  their  professional  and  academic  work.  As  one   participant  stated:   On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal  thinking  of  doctoral  student   mothers  and  their  quest  for  social  justice  in  and  through  education   Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Allies  for  Education  2018,  2,  1   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     It’s  really  hard  to  separate  my  life  experiences  from  what  I’m  doing  and  saying…I’m  a  parent  and   I  deal  with  parents  in  my  work…so  I  really  do  know  what  it’s  like.  I  think  about  how  [mothering]   informs  my  work  in  school…I’m  in  a  diversity  class  right  now  and  I’m  thinking  not  just  about  how   does  this  impact  my  work?  I’m  thinking,  how  does  it,  as  a  parent,  impact  me?  Or,  what  are  the   implications  for  parents,  not  just  students?   The  emergent  and  fluid  cognitive  strategies  necessary  to  navigate  the  arrival  of  a  child  and,  later,  in   raising  growing  people,  came  to  characterize  participant  experiences  as  both  learners  and  as  teachers  at   home  and  in  institutions.  Indeed,  it  was  difficult  for  participants  to  disentangle  their  narratives  about   their  lives  as  mothers  and  as  doctoral  students  since  these  roles  intersected  at  the  juncture  of  two   tremendously  important  tasks  both  requiring  significant  emotional  and  cognitive  resources.  As  O’Reilly   (2009,  p.  298)  stated,  new  forms  of  thinking  emerge  in  mothering  that  render  “motherwork  inherently   and  profoundly  an  intellectual  activity.”   As  lifelong  learners,  several  doctoral  student  mothers  spoke  about  how  they  came  to  the  field  of   education  initially  to  become  better  advocates  for  their  own  children  by  working  in  the  classroom,  by   substitute  teaching  or  in  taking  other  jobs  at  the  schools  their  children  attended.  Several  of  these   women  eventually  sought  teaching  credentials  and  found  themselves  on  a  career  path  they  had  not   anticipated.  One  participant  told  of  how  she  became  an  educator  in  response  to  her  child’s  diagnosis  of   a  learning  disability.  She  said:   I  never  wanted  to  be  a  teacher…  It  wasn’t  meant  to  be  in  a  sense,  to  get  into  special   [education]…but  my  first  child  got  an  Individualized  Educational  Plan  (IEP)  and…being  a  mother  I   wanted  to  know…  I  went  from  being  a  safety  coordinator…to  becoming  a  teacher  because  I   wanted  to  know  what  I  had  to  do  to  take  care  of  my  [child].     Similarly,  another  participant  explained  how  she  “really  got  into  university”  by  visiting  the  campus   where  one  of  her  children  was  attending  college.  With  her  children’s  encouragement,  she  enrolled  in   classes  and,  eventually,  completed  a  Master’s  in  Education.  Later,  she  embarked  upon  a  doctoral   program.     In  another  case,  one  participant  told  how  her  chronically  ill  child  required  medications  and  a  special  diet.   By  getting  a  job  on  a  university  campus,  this  doctoral  student  mother  was  able  to  stay  close  to  her  child   while  undertaking  her  Master’s  in  Early  Childhood  Education.  At  the  time  we  spoke,  this  woman  was   completing  her  doctorate  in  Higher  Education.  The  university  provided  a  safe  place  guaranteeing   proximity  to  her  child  while  she  fulfilled  her  aspiration  to  seek  a  doctorate.   Another  participant  who  became  a  single  mother  at  an  early  age  articulated  the  profound  significance  of   education  in  her  life  and  its  connection  to  motherwork.  She  said,  “mothering  made  me  study.  I  guess   [becoming  a  mother]  has  made  [education]  very  personal.  Being  a  parent  is  what  got  me  back  full-­‐time   into  the  university  as  an  undergraduate…I  had  to  create  a  life  for  us.”  For  this  doctoral  student  mother,   attending  university  became  a  tangible  expression  of  her  dedication  to  the  care  and  advancement  of  her   child.   On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal  thinking  of  doctoral  student   mothers  and  their  quest  for  social  justice  in  and  through  education   Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Allies  for  Education  2018,  2,  1   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     Motherhood  Informs  a  Commitment  to  Advance  Social  Justice     Intricately  tied  to  the  idea  that  mothering  inspires  new  cognitive  processes  is  the  expressed   commitment  to  social  justice  originating  in  the  experiences  of  doctoral  student  mothers.  As  one   participant  stated:     As  I  think  about  college  students,  I  think  the  whole  experience  of  being  a  parent  in  general,  whether  I   had  a  child  in  college  or  not…allows  me  to  look  at  a  student  from  a  different  lens  not  just  as  an  educator   but  as  a  person  who  has  a  prior  level  of  care  or  concern.  I  think  that  all  that  wanting  the  best,  not  just   for  my  own  kids,  but  for  other  people’s  kids—because  I  really  view  that  as  a  high  responsibility— supporting,  encouraging  and  serving  other  people’s  kids.     Yet  another  participant  recognized  access  to  higher  education  as  an  important  means  for  emancipation,   not  only  for  herself  but,  ultimately,  for  her  child  and  for  other  people’s  children  as  well.  She  told  me:     I  began  to  see  the  potential  for  education  to  be  a  mitigator  against  oppression,  marginalization  and   powerlessness…  education  can’t  do  everything  for  everybody  but  in  an  economy  and  a  society  like  ours   it’s  pretty  important…  My  [child]  has  given  me  a  tangible  reason  for  that…  the  human  being  that  I’m   hoping  to  cultivate  in  [my  child]  is  the  same  person  that  I  care  about  in  my  research—other  people’s   children  and  my  own  child—where  those  two  things  come  together.     Doctoral  student  mothers  spoke  eloquently  about  how  higher  education  not  only  contributed  to  their   personal  practice  as  mothers  but  how  mothering  labour  extended  into  and  informed  their  professional   lives.  This  idea  was  illuminated  by  one  participant  who  described  her  commitment  to  social  justice  and   equity.  She  said:   [Social  justice]  was  important  to  me  before  I  had  kids.  But  now,  it  is  even  more  important   because  I  have  kids  who  are  going  to  go  through  education  systems  and  who  are  going  to  go   into  higher  education…I  hope  it  will  be  more  inclusive  and  more  open  to  them.  My  kids  are  bi-­‐ racial…[The]  work  that  I  do  is  important  at  different  levels.  I  do  want  to  make  a  difference  and   have  an  effect  on  policy…  [This  work]  is  not  just  helping  society  but  helping  even  my  own  family,   my  own  kids.     Given  the  gendered  economic,  political  and  cultural  contexts  in  which  women  enact  their  everyday  lives,   this  study  found  that  doctoral  student  mothers  were  able  to  negotiate  institutional  cultures  to  meet  the   needs  of  their  own  children  which,  tangentially,  had  implications  for  the  interests  of  other  people’s   children  as  well.  Essentially,  they  understood  their  work  in  schools  and  universities  as  crucial  to  ensuring   care  for  their  own  children  while  also  advancing  social  justice  interests  more  broadly.     Conclusion   Much  like  the  teacher  mothers  whose  experiences  were  interrogated  by  Lawrence-­‐Lightfoot  (2003),   participants  in  this  study  indicated  that  mothering,  learning  and  teaching  are  profoundly  intertwined   activities.  Andre  (2009)  has  written  that,  “Motherhood  has  analogues  in  many  other  central  human   activities.  Teaching  is  the  obvious  first  analogue,  but  there  are  many  others”  (p.  70).  Consistently,  Matta   (2013)  described  the  changes  she  experienced  after  becoming  a  mother  in  the  following  way:     On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal  thinking  of  doctoral  student   mothers  and  their  quest  for  social  justice  in  and  through  education   Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Allies  for  Education  2018,  2,  1   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     I  am  a  stronger  woman  and  teacher  because  I  am  an  experienced  mother…Mothering  influences  my   interactions  with  [my  students],  my  listening  skills…watching  my  own  children  grow  has  also  helped  me   to  develop  a  keen  interest  in  students’  intellectual  growth  and  development  (p.  147).     In  contemporary  economic,  political  and  cultural  contexts  in  which  there  are  competing  labour  demands   placed  on  women,  participants  in  this  study  proved  to  be  resourceful  in  their  reliance  on  educational   institutions  to  satisfy  personal  interests  as  they  strived  to  meet  the  needs  of  their  own  children  and,   ultimately,  as  they  worked  towards  improving  conditions  for  others.  This  study  revealed  that  children   are  formidable  sources  of  inspiration  for  the  advancement  of  social  change.     In  the  absence  of  comprehensive  social  programs,  schools  and  universities  continue  to  be  important   sites  for  advancing  social  justice.  Understanding  the  experiences  of  mothers  who  teach  in  schools  and   universities  helps  to  acknowledge  mothering  as  an  ontological  standpoint  (Quinn,  2004)—in  other   words,  as  an  important  and  distinguishing  way  of  being  in,  and  knowing  the  world.  Beyond  mitigating   the  gendered  demands  placed  upon  women,  beyond  the  minimizing  banter  relating  to  women’s   cognitive  skills  reflected  in  the  notion  of  “mommy  brain”,  beyond  the  erasure  of  women’s  needs  and   interests,  we  must  recognize  the  legitimacy  of  a  mother  worldview  (O’Reilly,  2009)  that  shapes  all   aspects  of  the  lives  of  women  who  parent  children.  Without  doubt  mothering  informs  academic  and   intellectual  activities,  yet  “all  that  hard-­‐won  knowledge  is  [too  often]  excluded  as  if  it  were  a  betrayal  of   our  commitment  to  the  life  of  the  mind,  when  the  real  cause  for  exclusion  is  persistent  sexism,  a   dismissive  belittlement  of  everything  that  smacks  of  the  maternal”  (Sanders,  2008,  p.  248).  The   narratives  of  participants  in  this  study  revealed  an  interest  in  new  opportunities  for  shaping  education   on  behalf  of  those  who,  historically,  have  been  denied  representation  in  informing  the  institutional   cultures  of  schools  and  universities—in  this  case,  women  and  children.     About  the  Author   In  another  life,  Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément  was  a  researcher  and  strategic  planner  with  the  Ministry  of  the   Solicitor  General  and  at  the  Department  of  Justice  Canada.  Her  research  on  victim  policy  and  legislation   informed  amendments  to  the  Criminal  Code,  as  well  as  programs  and  policies  relating  to  the  National   Family  Violence  Initiative  and  the  National  Crime  Prevention  Council  among  others.  She  has  taught  in   the  Faculty  of  Social  Sciences  at  the  University  of  Ottawa—the  world’s  largest  bilingual  French-­‐English   university—and  at  the  Collège  d’enseignement  général  et  professionnel  in  Québec.  In  California,  she   worked  at  CSU  Northridge  on  its  reaccreditation  and  for  the  Vice-­‐Provost.  Currently,  she  teaches  in  the   Masters  of  Higher  Education  Leadership  program  at  CSUCI.  Her  research  interests  include  the  sociology   of  higher  education,  women’s  lives  in  the  academy,  doctoral  study,  the  sociology  of  law,  victimization   and  peacemaking.  Nancy  enjoys  poetry  and  has  been  published  in  literary  magazines  in  the  US  and   Canada.  She  is  Jackson’s  mom.   References   Andre,  J.  (2009).  The  virtue  of  honouring  oneself.  In  A.  O’Reilly  (Ed.),  Maternal  thinking:  Philosophy,   politics,  practice  (pp.  79-­‐90).  Toronto,  Canada:  Demeter  Press.     On  Mothering,  Teaching  and  Learning:  The  maternal  thinking  of  doctoral  student   mothers  and  their  quest  for  social  justice  in  and  through  education   Dr.  Nancy-­‐Jean  Pément   Allies  for  Education  2018,  2,  1   https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe     Chase,  S.E.  (2008).  Narrative  Inquiry:  Multiple  lenses,  multiple  approaches.  In  N.K.  Denzin  &  Y.S.  Lincoln   (Eds.),  Collecting  and  Interpreting  Qualitative  Materials  (3rd  ed.,  pp.  57-­‐94).  Los  Angeles,  CA:  Sage   Publications.     Ellison,  K.  (2005).  The  Mommy  Brain:  How  motherhood  makes  us  smarter.  New  York,  N.Y.:  Perseus   Books.     Hooks,  B.  (1994).  Teaching  to  Transgress:  Education  as  the 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