scholarly journals The life histories of teacher mothers: exploring a special situation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Aimee Quickfall

This thesis, ‘The life histories of teacher mothers: exploring a special situation’ concerns a personally motivated study on the experiences and influences on Primary and Early Years teachers who are also mothers. The study involved unstructured life-history interviews with five teacher-mothers and took a postmodern feminist approach, in that it aimed to tell the stories of women, for women, whilst acknowledging and centring the individual’s experience as unique. Ethical dilemmas were a key part of the study and thesis, including negotiating insider research relationships and maintaining participant voice in the data. It asks three questions: 1. What do the life history stories of teacher mothers suggest about this special circumstance? 2. To what extent does analysis of ‘ecological systems’ and discourses illuminate the life of a teacher mother? 3. What are the points of coalescence and convergence that groups of teacher mothers may relate to, that could be potential sites of new policy and activism? Analysis of interview data involved use of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, combined with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model to create a new model of discourse analysis: ecological systems discourse analysis (ESDA) that considers teacher-mothers’ individual worlds, as well as giving opportunities to map shared themes and positions towards the discourses of teacher-motherhood. This may have future applications for other areas of narrative research. This thesis argues that the special circumstance of being a teacher-mother, whilst unique for every individual, has some points of coalescence of experience. These include the conflicting pressures of work and gender performativity, normalization of overwork, barriers to part-time work, guilt at being ‘good enough’ and a reluctance to identify school leaders as people in a position to change the discourse locally. It concludes that teacher-mothers’ stories are complex and that any local, regional or national policymaking, activism and supportive measures need to acknowledge this. Claims to knowledge include additions to the understanding of teacher-motherhood from coalescences of experience, flexible interview methods for hard to reach groups, the defence of teacher-motherhood as a special circumstance and a new model for discourse analysis.

Author(s):  
Chambi Chachage ◽  
Jacqueline Mgumia

African women were at the forefront of nationalistic struggles for independence in Africa that were at their height in the 1950s. In mainland Tanzania, then known as Tanganyika, Bibi Titi Mohamed emerged as a leading voice in building the liberation movement through a political party known as the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). As a leader of the women’s wing of TANU, she traveled throughout the country to mobilize both women and men to join the party that led to the independence of Tanganyika in the early 1960s. During the transition to full independence, she became a member of the Legislative Council, agitating for inclusive improvement in the welfare of all citizens. Her contribution in the parliamentary debates focused on rural development and equal access to employment, education, and provision of healthcare, with special attention to women in general and the girl child, in particular. After independence, she became the Junior Minister for Community Development and a leading advocate of people-centered development and gender equality. During the second half of the 1960s, Bibi Titi’s promising political career took a downward turn, bringing it to an abrupt end in the early 1970s. Her downfall started in 1965 when she lost her parliamentary seat in the general elections. Since one had to be an MP in order to be a Minister, she also lost her ministerial position in the government. Although she continued to serve as a notable member of the ruling party’s executive organs and vocal leader of its women’s wing, her career hit another snag when TANU issued the Arusha Declaration on Socialism and Self-Reliance in 1967. She would appear to have disagreed with provisions of the Arusha Declaration’s Leadership Code that barred leaders from owning rentable properties as well as being of the opinion that the process used in adopting the Declaration had been inadequately consultative. On this account, she resigned from all party positions. One would have assumed that after the resignation she would have had a quiet retirement from her momentous political career, but this was not to be. Three years later, she was charged for treason and then jailed for life prior to getting a presidential pardon in 1972. Bibi Titi’s life after imprisonment went on unrecorded and unnoticed. She largely lived out of the public limelight that characterized the first decade of her political career. One of the most recognized names in the country partly faded from the public for almost an entire generation. Reference to her name and contribution to national his/herstory disappeared from party and government official records, almost extinguishing her significant role in the early years of Tanzanian history. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, her name started to re-emerge, not least because of the rise of the feminist movement, life histories, and gender and women studies. Hers is the story that ought to be told and retold—of the muting and unmuting of a leading voice of freedom. It is a story that will continue to manifest itself in various debates on the nature and character of the leadership of liberation movements, with specific reference to women leaders in Africa.


2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL HOGGETT ◽  
PHOEBE BEEDELL ◽  
LUIS JIMENEZ ◽  
MARJ MAYO ◽  
CHRIS MILLER

Using detailed extracts from two life histories, this article examines the nature of the personal identifications that often underpin the commitment of welfare workers to their jobs. We explore the paradox that it is those identifications such as class and gender, mediated through individual biography, that fix the ‘self as object’ and that also provide us with the resources for self-transformation. In this respect, the article not only throws light upon the psychical and emotional roots of commitment to the other, but also upon some of the impasses ‘identity theory’ currently finds itself in.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Rebecca Bloom ◽  
Amanda Reynolds ◽  
Rosemary Amore ◽  
Angela Beaman ◽  
Gatenipa Kate Chantem ◽  
...  

Readers theater productions are meaningful expressions of creative pedagogy in higher education. This article presents the script of a readers theater called Identify This… A Readers Theater of Women's Voices, which was researched, written, and produced by undergraduate and graduate students in a women's studies class called Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender. Section one of the article reproduces the script of Identify This that was based on life history interviews with a diverse selection of women to illustrate intersectional identities. Section two briefly describes the essential elements of the process we used to create and perform Identify This.


Author(s):  
Maren N. Vitousek ◽  
Laura A. Schoenle

Hormones mediate the expression of life history traits—phenotypic traits that contribute to lifetime fitness (i.e., reproductive timing, growth rate, number and size of offspring). The endocrine system shapes phenotype by organizing tissues during developmental periods and by activating changes in behavior, physiology, and morphology in response to varying physical and social environments. Because hormones can simultaneously regulate many traits (hormonal pleiotropy), they are important mediators of life history trade-offs among growth, reproduction, and survival. This chapter reviews the role of hormones in shaping life histories with an emphasis on developmental plasticity and reversible flexibility in endocrine and life history traits. It also discusses the advantages of studying hormone–behavior interactions from an evolutionary perspective. Recent research in evolutionary endocrinology has provided insight into the heritability of endocrine traits, how selection on hormone systems may influence the evolution of life histories, and the role of hormonal pleiotropy in driving or constraining evolution.


2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142199115
Author(s):  
Tim Palmer ◽  
David Baker

This article explores the life histories of virtuoso classical music soloists with particular reference to conservatoire provision. Detailed life-history interviews were conducted with six virtuosi between May 2018 and January 2019. These participants were three singers, two cellists and a concert pianist. Resultant qualitative data were stored in an NVivo software database and understood through a process of analytic induction. Key findings spotlight the significance of Higher Education, a connection between broad creative and cultural interest and musical excellence, and a significant role for conservatoires in diversifying their training and easing transition into the career. The soloists also warned of dangers relating to controlling teachers, loss of autonomy and a need to convey their career realities to students.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Scanlan

This study creates life history portraits of two White middle-class native-English-speaking principals demonstrating commitments to social justice in their work in public elementary schools serving disproportionately high populations of students who are marginalized by poverty, race, and linguistic heritage. Through self-reported life histories of these principals, I create portraits that illustrate how these practitioners draw motivation, commitment, and sustenance in varied, complicated, and at times contradictory ways.


Parasitology ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 374-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Thomas

1. The life history of N. battus is described, and a comparative description of the life history of N. filicollis is given.2. The life histories of these two species are compared with those of N. spathiger and N. helvetianus, two closely related species, and are shown to follow the same basic pattern, with minor variations in timing which appear to be specific in nature, and not related to differences in culture methods or host species.3. The pathogenesis of Nematodirus species is discussed and related to the migration of larvae into the intestinal mucosa during development.


2002 ◽  
Vol 80 (9) ◽  
pp. 1578-1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P Yourth ◽  
Mark R Forbes ◽  
Robert L Baker

A few studies have shown that male and female invertebrates differ in immunity and that these differences appear related to differences in sexual dimorphism and gender differences in life histories. Melanotic encapsulation of foreign objects in insects is one form of immunity. The damselfly Lestes forcipatus Rambur is moderately sexually dimorphic, and much is known about patterns of mass gain in congeners relating to differences in life history between males and females. In this study, females were more immunoresponsive than males under controlled temperatures, following emergence, and at a time when parasitic mites were challenging these hosts. However, males and females that overlapped in mass at emergence did not differ in their immune responses. Males in better condition at emergence were more immunoresponsive than lighter males, but this relation was not found in females. Sex differences in immune expression may have implications for how females versus males are able to deal with challenges from parasites, under varying environmental conditions.


1932 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsie J. Cadman

Since 1860, in which year De Bary published his great work Die Mycetozoen, the investigation of the life-history of members of the Mycetozoa has aroused a considerable amount of interest, and a great deal of important research has been carried out in this connection. The group of organisms is particularly interesting, because it lies on the borderline between plant and animal kingdoms, and it is very possible that a detailed investigation of several species of the Mycetozoa might be of considerable assistance in elucidating certain obscure points in the life-histories of higher members of both the great natural groups. The term “Mycetozoa,” which we owe to De Bary, will be used throughout in preference to the older term “Myxogastres” invented by Fries (32, p. 2), and that of “Myxomycetes” first employed by Link (32, p. 2). “Mycetozoon,” or “fungus-like animal,” is a very appropriate description of a member of the group, since during part of its life-history it exhibits distinctly animal-like characters, and the individuals move rapidly by means of flagella, whilst later, during the development of the sporangium, a plant-like form is assumed. The combination of plant and animal characters has given rise to much discussion as to the position of the Mycetozoa in plant or animal kingdom, and the group has been claimed by both zoologists and botanists.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document