Adults pursuing post-secondary education online often do not consider themselves to be students first. They manage multiple competing roles such as parent, employee, and student. Their experiences as students are affected by these roles, and vice versa. This presentation shares findings about the lived experiences of student-mothers.
Adult students pursuing post-secondary education online are more than just students. They are often simultaneously parents, employees, volunteers, family members, and spouses. Their experiences as online students—including their satisfaction, success, and persistence—are greatly affected by all of the other roles they embody (Furst-Bowe & Dittmann, 2001; Kramarae, 2000; Moore & Kearsley 2012; Orr, 2005; Stavredes & Herder, 2013). Geographic context, socioeconomic status, gender roles, and educational delivery format all also influence their experiences as college students (Furst, Bowe, & Dittman, 2001; Jackson, 2003; Kramarae, 2002; Moreau & Kerner, 2012; Noonan, 2001; Orr, 2005; Pare, 2009; Prins, Campbell, & Kassab, 2014; Pruitt, 2008; Stalker, 2001; Vaccaro & Lovell, 2010). For example, online classwork typically takes place in the student’s home, or sometimes in their workplace, where life is also taking place all around them, pulling them away, cognitively and even physically, from their school work.
A significant number-over 50%‑of adult students enrolled in distance education programs are parents (Radford, 2011). Many of those students are mothers who have described all that they do and all that they are as fragmented and often as “simultaneous” (Ingman, 2006, p.54). The “schizophrenically divided spheres of public and private life” can be overwhelming, frustrating, and distracting (Ingman, 2006, p.54). This juggling act has even been called a mental burden on student-mothers as they try to live up to the often all-consuming image of what a good mother is supposed to be and do (Moreau & Kerner, 2012; Pare, 2009).
The purpose of this presentation is to share findings from the qualitative study, Negotiating Contradictions: Rural Student-Mothers and Online Learning, with those who work with adult students and, in particular, student-mothers. This phenomenological study is about the lived experiences of rural mothers who are pursuing their educational goals via online learning. How and why they negotiate the often conflicting roles of mother and of student in the ways that they do is the primary focus of this research. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used to further analyze the data and in order to unpack the effects of the participants’ rich cultural and historical backgrounds on their current daily lives. Five student-mothers each participated in three interviews and completed a daily journal for up to two weeks.
The student-mothers shared details of their lives from birth to the present. In their first interviews, they recalled their life histories. Particular attention was paid to where they lived, whom they lived with, gender roles in their childhood homes, and their educational backgrounds. They shared details from their current lived experiences as student-mothers in their second interviews. A portrait of their experiences was created by focusing on the most pertinent aspects of their lives: their families, online programs, paid employment, division of domestic labor, extended families, and social lives. The student-mothers reflected on the meaning that was made and on themes that arose in their first and second interviews, during their third interview. They used their journals to note any reflections they had on balancing school, work, and family.
The student-mothers who participated in this study prioritized their families and children above all else in their lives. They sacrificed sleep, friendships, and free time, along with many other things, to achieve their goals of earning a degree and to fulfill what they believed to be their purpose: to raise healthy, happy, well-adjusted children who feel loved. This study shows how and why.
I will post the PowerPoint presentation that accompanies my discussion on the conference web site.