ABSTRACT
Despite many U.S. students being parents, there continues to be a dearth of research on student-fathers’ experiences in their post-secondary education. This population warrants attention and support. There is a disproportionate retention rate for student-fathers, as they are less likely to matriculate into higher education. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the experiences of student-fathers from multiple perspectives through critical race ethnography and auto-ethnography. The chapter argues that adopting a parenting-student-receptive culture that includes student-fathers is an integral part of upholding Title IX. To that end, student-fathers and parents/caretakers who are not birth parents should be explicitly included in the discourse of Title IX regarding pregnant and parenting students. To support this argument, the chapter discusses the problematic semantics of Title IX, shows related effects on student-fathers in community colleges and universities, and highlights the resiliency of these parenting students. These vignettes give way to a critical dialogue between the authors, a student-father and student-mother, and their stories evidence the need for practices that better support student-fathers, mothering students, and co-parenting students in academia.
