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Despite discourses of inclusivity and gender equity in higher education, women’s experiences reflected in Motherhood and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) suggest that educational institutions involved in ITE provision can be inflexible and lacking empathy for student teachers who are mothers (STMs). Drawing on interviews with two cohorts of STMs following a one-year ITE programme (before and during COVID-19), the book provides a thoughtful and research-informed discussion of the challenges the women faced, and the shifts in practice adopted by ITE providers during the pandemic.
Motherhood and Initial Teacher Education raises issues for consideration by ITE providers and practitioners who work with STMs. The book raises awareness of how this largely overlooked group of students might be better supported, drawing on some of the lessons learned during COVID-19, when educational institutions offered increased flexibility and family-friendly policies. The authors consider what shifts might be needed in UKHE policy and culture to cultivate compassionate, gender-equitable, educational institutions. The study also offers insights for mothers who are embarking upon ITE, or thinking of applying. The work is timely, as it has implications for teacher recruitment, at a time when appropriately qualified teachers are in short supply.
This important book is pertinent at a time when teacher recruitment and retention are in crisis. The strong, informed and balanced argument for flexibility and compassion to empower student teacher mothers to succeed is hard to ignore. Policy and practice is not immoveable.
Joan Woodhouse is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Leicester, UK. Much of her research has focused on teachers’ lives and careers. She has a particular interest in women teachers’ experiences.
Laura Guihen is a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Exeter. Her main research interests include gender, educational leadership and teachers' lives and careers.
Chapter 1. The experiences of student mothers in initial teacher education: Background and context
Chapter 2. Research design
Chapter 3. Participants’ stories (i): The 2018-19 cohort (pre-COVID-19)
Chapter 4. Participants’ stories (ii): The 2019-20 cohort
Chapter 5. Findings (i): Student teacher mothers’ experiences pre-COVID-19
Chapter 6. Findings (ii): Student teacher mothers’ experiences during COVID-19
Chapter 7. Discussion of findings (i): Student teacher mothers’ experiences pre-COVID-19
Chapter 8. Discussion of findings (ii): Student teacher mothers’ experiences during COVID-19
Chapter 9. Towards institutional compassion in initial teacher education