ABSTRACT
In devising this project and in its conduct, we consciously included ourselves and our experiences. We drew on our experiences as mothers and a common knowledge of typical school situations and problems to establish rapport with the women we were interviewing. We used phrases such as: “When my children were small, I . . .” or: “When the teacher called to discuss problems, I often felt. . . .” This was, in part, a principled methodological matter adopted in recognition of our own historical presence in the research process, and an untheorized, ordinary responsiveness (Oakley, 1974). In contrast, when we talked with educators about our research, our experience as mothers did not serve us in the same way. Instead, our focus on mothering work often provoked stories of problem mothers and their children. In this chapter, we explore our connectedness with mothers and our disconnected experiences with educators through an analysis of the mothering discourse as it is coordinated with public schooling.
