Motherhood and Initial Teacher Education: The experiences of student teacher mothers

<p dir="ltr">This book offers fresh, contemporary insights into the experiences and perceptions of women who combine parenthood and initial teacher education (ITE). Feminist research over decades consistently reports the struggles faced by women who combine teaching and motherhood (see, for example, Brown, 2023; Coleman, 2002; Komiti & Moorosi, 2020; Smith, 2011, 2016). A smaller body of research suggests that these challenges are also experienced by women following ITE programmes (see, for example, Griffiths, 2002; Lynch & Casey, 2024; Savage, 2023). Our book builds on this base to add new, up-to-date perspectives, taking into account women’s experiences both before and during COVID-19 restrictions. </p><p dir="ltr">We draw in the book on interview data from a two-year-long study (2018-2020), in which two cohorts of student teacher mothers (STMs) participated. The twenty women involved were following a one-year ITE programme in the English Midlands. The two cohorts completed the programme during the academic years 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. Public health measures came legally into force in England in March 2020, from which point anyone who could work from home was required to do so, effecting a dramatic shift in the working patterns of the nation (Kinman & Grant, 2024). Serendipitously, therefore, the data generated from our interviews enabled us to carry out a comparison between STMs’ experiences before and during the COVID-19 restrictions, with some insightful, and perhaps surprising, results. </p><p dir="ltr">Our study focused on (i) the women’s perceptions of the particular challenges they encountered in managing their dual role as student teachers and mothers; and (ii) the factors they identified as key in sustaining them through the course. Drawing on first-hand accounts of the challenges and affordances of combining ITE and motherhood, our findings might helpfully inform some aspects of the policy and practice of ITE provision in a post-COVID-19 world. Insights are also gleaned into the women’s home lives, indicating that, whilst there is evidence of moves towards an equitable sharing of childcare and housework tasks with husbands or male partners, women in heterosexual relationships appear to continue to assume primary control of the domestic and familial domain.</p>