published_or_final_version / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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This thesis examines the experiences of four single Canadian mothers of Jamaican heritage with respect to their children’s education. Four themes suggested in the literature—beliefs, practices, barriers, and supports—guided the research. The interviews with the mothers largely confirmed previous research in the field. As such, all the mothers believed that it was a shared responsibility between parents and teachers in supporting children’s education. The mothers’ practices included primarily at-home support and to a lesser extent at-school support but did not include strict discipline. The barriers most salient for these mothers were lack of time and resources. To help overcome these barriers, the mothers relied on domestic kin networks. From these findings, the thesis provides implications for both research and practice. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-14 17:35:40.569

Mothers, in female literature, have often been represented through the eyes of their daughters; only recently have they begun to speak for themselves. The object of this thesis is to analyse the portrayal of mothers and daughters in several modern short stories written by women from 1961 onwards, in order to understand the principal elements of an often difficult and ambivalent relationship. In the texts written from "daughterly" perspectives, mothers represent regression and lack of autonomy; therefore, daughters tend to dissociate themselves from their mothers in an attempt to avoid the cycle of repetition typical of this relationship. In these texts, daughters speak for and about their mothers and hence do not allow them to articulate their own subjectivity. However, as daughters reach adulthood, they are able to accept their mothers and a new dialogue emerges. In the texts written from "motherly" perspectives, mothers speak about the responsibility and the guilt which the "institution" of motherhood confers upon them. Although they acknowledge their powerlessness in patriarchal society, these mothers nonetheless hope for better lives for their daughters. By speaking for themselves, they attempt to find an alternative to the traditional role of the mother. / The collection of short stories that follows, Demain tu comprendras, presents mothers and daughters at various stages in their lives and in their relationships. They are written from both "motherly" and "daughterly" perspectives.

The increasing involvement of mothers in paid employment has brought attention to child care both as a critical social issue and as a pressing need for families. Nevertheless, child care in Canada continues to be framed as a private issue to be resolved by individual families. In the absence of policies and programs that ensure widespread access to affordable, high-quality care, women who combine motherhood with paid employment face considerable challenges in making decisions about child care. This study examines the processes by which women make child care decisions and sheds light on both how and why they make such decisions. The emphasis is on the meanings that women themselves give to motherhood, paid work, and child care and on how they resolve the competing interests that inevitably underlie work and family decisions. By drawing on women's accounts of their own lives, the research elucidates the multiple and interrelated factors that enter into women's decisions and thus offers insights into the reasoning behind complex patterns of decision making. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 women who were intending to return to work or school following the birth of their first child. Women were interviewed at three points in time, encompassing a period from late pregnancy to several months after returning to work. The study furthers our understanding of the public and private dimensions of child care by revealing the dilemmas faced by women who frame their child care concerns in deeply moral terms, yet are called on to meet their child care needs within a public market oriented child care system. In particular, women's accounts of their experiences demonstrate the ways in which the intertwined and deeply privatised notions of 'dependent child' and 'good mother' underlie women's decisions about child care. Moreover, the research leaves no doubt that women's experiences of making child care decisions do not accord with the prevailing neo-classical economics version of rational and self-interested decision making. By examining women's decisions over time, the study illuminates the sequence of decision making about child care and adds to our understanding of what is entailed in looking for and deciding about child care. The study concludes with a discussion of implications of the findings for policy development and future research.

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This qualitative study explores the experiences of mothers who have children with developmental disabilities. I sought to understand both the positive aspects of mothering a child with a disability, as well as understand the potential negative aspects of mothering a child with a developmental disability. I also explored how the mothers reflected on this experience of mothering a child with a disability. Furthermore, I sought information on what services and/or supports these mothers found helpful, and why. Six mothers were interviewed for this study. From these interviews, six themes were identified: 1. positive experiences and emotions; 2. mothering a child with a developmental disability as difficult, stressful, and overwhelming work; 3). mothers’ fears for their children; 4). mothers’ sense of loss; 5). mothers’ relationships with their non-disabled children; and 6). mothers’ perceptions of the helpfulness of formal and informal supports.

The purpose of the study was to obtain information on the circumstances surrounding the lives of young mothers who resort to killing their babies, and what could be done to address the problem of infanticide. An exploratory multiple-case study design was implemented using the qualitative approach. These types of approach were to explore the same phenomenon of infanticide in a diversity of situations and with a number of subjects. The focus was on determining the dynamics of why the subjects of the investigation think or behave in a particular manner; on getting an insight in the circumstances, structures and institutions in society that contribute to infanticide. A systematic inquiry was implemented so as to get an understanding of human beings and the nature of their interactions with themselves and their surroundings. The subjects were drawn from the police cases since the independence of the Republic of Namibia. A non-probability sampling was done on a spur-of-the moment basis to take advantage of available respondents. Data was derived from questionnaires, interviews and observations of 7 girl-children. Three were from the Windhoek prison and four were from the community. The following were identified: Ignorance about their sexuality let to unwanted and/or unplanned pregnancy. Economic dependence put the girls at the receiving end. This led to a situation in which they have to pay in kind leading to unwanted and/or unplanned pregnancies. It was also observed that support systems to help the girl-children to overcome these obstacles of knowing their reproductive system and to empower them financially to exist in the community are lacking. Much still needs to be done to make the girl-child a valued member of society. Such factors as education, access to productive health services and law-making need to be modified to advantage the girl-child. / (M.Soc.Sc.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005