Mothers and higher education: balancing time, study and space

Abstract

Balancing higher education, study, family life and a professional role is a complex task for many women students. Family support, work commitments and feelings of guilt can impact on how mothers carve out time and space for family life and their studies.2 This paper draws on qualitative research with women doctoral students to examine their use of time and space. Following a narrative line of inquiry with methods of mind mapping and focused interviews, family capital was used as a theoretical lens to analyse the role the family plays in supporting access to time and space.Findings reveal factors that may act as a barrier to a woman's success and highlight certain strategies that mothers use to find time and space to study. This paper highlights the important role of economic, social, cultural and emotional capital in the family and how access to capital influences study patterns, especially in terms of 'headspace'.

Writing Retreats Responding to the Needs of Doctoral Candidates Through Engagement with Academic Writing

“…When she writes at home, she is constantly distracted because she gets interrupted by her loved ones who do not recognize writing as legitimate work, but when she participates in a retreat, she feels that she is taken more seriously. These results echo studies from Carter et al (2013) and Webber and Dismore (2020) who report that PhD candidates, especially women, experience difficulties to legitimize writing with their immediate entourage.…”

Let's get visible: evidence-based interventions aimed at supporting, empowering and celebrating student-parents in higher education.

“…Whilst further research since 2014 has explored the experiences of studentparents (e.g. Brooks, 2015;Moreau and Kerner, 2015;O'Shea, 2015;Sallee, 2015;Mallman and Lee, 2016;Parr, 2017;Dickson and Tennant, 2018;Stone and O'Shea, 2019;Scharp et al, 2020;Webber and Dismore, 2020;Briegel et al, 2021), there is no evidence in the literature or elsewhere of Moreau's recommendations having been heeded in any deliberate or organised way. Several recent studies have focused on the impact of Covid-19 on student-parents (Arowoshola, 2020;Lin et al, 2021;Savage, 2021;Bogossian, 2021;Nikiforidou and Holmes, 2022) This action research study (Arnold and Norton, 2018) employed an inductive approach, helping the researcher to understand what is happening in practice (Saunders et al, 2012) and involving the collection of data and the subsequent emergence of theory and meaning (Stokes and Wall, 2014).…”

Engaged Learning During Distraction: A Case Study of Successful Working Moms in Distance Education

“…D. Taylor et al, 2019). Much of what they observed validated their own strategies for success as working mother-students and highlighted the importance of time and space for study (Webber & Dismore, 2020).…”

“…For many working mother students, their self-concept is tied to their success in balancing these roles (Lindsay & Gillum, 2018). Family support and feelings of guilt have been shown to impact how they balance these competing roles (Thomas et al, 2021;Webber & Dismore, 2020). Single mothers in particular found that maintaining a schedule and routine were essential for success (Lindsay & Gullim, 2018).…”