Mothering and Identity Construction in the Context of Higher Education

This book reflects the importance I accorded to the idea that addressing mothers’ and their children’s concerns together can be more fruitful in examinations of identity construction than separating them. The key issues that connect the empirical chapters are time (requiring ‘balancing’ of social positions); change (in mothering practices and confidence); perceived ‘influence’ on children’s development, and relationships (including the ways in which identities are constructed in the ‘space in the middle’). Participants addressed these issues in different ways with some women positioning not spending ‘quality’ time with their children as meeting children’s developmental needs (Chapter Seven). Other themes included mothering constructed as mundane and undervalued (Chapter Five), children’s constructions of helping ‘roles’ (Chapter Six) and perceived intersubjectivity in mother/child interactions (Chapter Seven). In the final chapter I discuss the study as it relates to theoretical debates about motherhood, mothering and child development. I also examine my involvement in the research process and finally, suggest applications for the findings.