Shuyu Chen-Week 5-SS1

This week’s reading “Mothering is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy by Allyson Titiangco-Cubales mainly talks about her struggles of dealing with motherhood and scholar life. At the beginning of the reading, she gives us her background: she is a Filipian American,  she used to almost fail in highschool but finally got a PHD degree and she is a full-time And then she questions herself about whether she is qualified and from her words, I could feel her worries about whether she has balanced her scholar life and motherhood. I could understand how she feels and why she feels. My aunt is a successful professor. She teaches language in the university; she is one of the most popular professors at her university. She works really hard, everytime I visit her, she is preparing for the class or reviewing students papers. I rarely see she spend time with my cousin. When she chats with my mother about kids, she always says what book she bought for my cousin and what she told my cousin to do to improve herself. However, my cousin told me a different story that I knew my aunt educated her by giving her assignments, treating her as my aunt’s student. My aunt retired recently and complained to my mother that my cousin isn’t close to her. “ I understand she wants to make an achievement in her career, so she directly ignores me, but now she wants to make up our relationship, I think it is too late.” my cousin says. I feel sad they are not getting along with each other. They should be the closest people in the world, but now they are the most familiar stranger. My aunt is trying her best to make up my cousin, but my cousin doesn’t accept.

My question is: What suggestions do you have to improve their relationship?

Reference 

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