Max Li - Week 5 SS1

    In her autoethnography, Professor Tintiangco-Cubales analyzes the role of motherhood in both academia and the motherscholar's personal life. Beyond the physical toll motherhood takes upon the motherscholar, the role often carries stigma from colleagues who deem motherhood as valuing of the personal over the political. Their hardships are often disregarded and minimized. The doubt from others also serve as microaggressions, which further develop the guilt that these motherscholars already hold for not spending enough time with their family or for their work. This reminds me of the concept of "care work" presented in last week's reading, where Dariotis and Yoo discusses the emotional or physical labor that Asian American women do within the academy to help students or colleagues. This is also often disregarded by their colleagues, where their work is deemed as inconsequential.
    However, Tintiangco-Cubales considers motherhood as an opportunity for alternative pedagogy. She describes the similarities between the two concepts. "Motherhood and education are two sides of the same coin. Both were set up as patriarchal institutions that serve roles in a social reproduction of hierarchy (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). The role of mother and teacher both have the possibilities of either maintaining the status quo or disrupting it; both can either be oppressive or liberatory." (Tintiangco-Cubales 2019) In teaching students of color, it is crucial that they have mentors who care for them and are willing to nurture them. She utilized her experience as a mother and a nurturing figure to develop programs to assist those students, and worked within the community to empower people of color. Furthermore, motherhood and the nurture she provided for others created opportunity for reciprocal care from those she cared for. While this is "oftentimes hard for either a mother or educator to accept," it shines light upon the ability of pedagogy of care to provide care for those being taught and those teaching. This sort of pedagogy is crucial for disrupting the dominant power within the academy, especially those who deem community work as invaluable. It provides mentorship and care for students of color who lack resources from universities, and support of motherscholars who are otherized by the administrators. While self care is important for protecting yourself from the potential damage done by the academy, it is also important to care for others in similar situations and provide the help they need.

Question: How can universities or students better support motherscholars?

References:

Dariotis, W., & Yoo, G. (2019) Care Work: The Invisible Labor of Asian American Women in Academia

Tintiangco-Cubales, A. (2019) Mothering is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy (Pedagogy of Care)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw