Teenage mothers and education

• Main Author: McLeod, Janet
• Published: University of East London 2013
• Subjects: 150
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.590829

The purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly, it was undertaken to establish whether teenage mothers were motivated to re-engage with education postpregnancy. Secondly, to consider whether Educational Psychologists could support the long-term educational outcomes of teenage mothers. Five teenage mothers between the ages of 16-19 were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, to explore this further: a) What are the views of teenage mothers living within an outer London Borough about their individual educational experiences? b) What similarities and differences are there between their avowed identity and ascribed identity? c) What are their future aspirations? d) Where is the teenage mother situated in structural society? The researcher employed Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to analyse discourse from the participants and discourses within the wider discursive field. This study explored how Educational Psychologists could practice psychology to support teenage mothers in re-engaging with education post pregnancy, which may improve the economic and social prospects of the teenage mother, her long term outcomes and those of her child. Findings indicated that the teenage mothers found motherhood fulfilling indeed and motherhood was in fact an important motivational factor in their future aspirations. Findings also strongly indicated that there is a need for discursive formations which encompass diversity and difference amongst teenage mothers and wholesomely defines their strengths and potential in order to reproduce the “truth”. Research should develop educational programs and in particular literacy programs based on the theory of cultural production in order to equip teenage mothers with language and critical thinking skills in which to negotiate their need for equal access to power and resources; and reposition themselves in order to negate widely held societal presumptions about young mothers. Herein lies the challenge for a new social reality.