Supporting Mothers' Learning
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In this series, I’m writing about mothers as learners. In the previous post, I discussed mothers as a subset of adult learners and women learners. In that post, I described some of the constraints that learning mothers face. In this post, I’ll discuss strategies for designing learning opportunities in ways that best serve mothers.
As noted in the previous post, mothers have a unique relationship to time. Mothers’ time is often highly constrained. Mothers are more likely to perform routine daily tasks involved in the care for children (think daycare drop-off, making dinner, doing laundry) (Craig & Mullan, 2011; Craig & Mullan, 2011; Pepin, Sayer, & Casper, 2018; Schieman, Ruppanner & Milkie, 2017). This reduces available time, flexibility of time, and predictability of time for learning. In response, learning opportunities should do the opposite: They should be flexible.
The following are all ways in which learning opportunities can be made flexible for mothers:
Not location bound
Accessible at any time
Accessible in multiple formats
Flexible assignment deadlines
Broken into shorter segments
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Adult learners, as noted in the previous post, also tend to be focused on specific problems or topics that directly relate to their social roles (Davenport & Davenport, 1985; Knowles, 1978). These roles for learning mothers could include their roles as mothers, students, workers, business owners, volunteers, partners, family members, and so on. Thus, to best meet the needs of learning mothers, learning experiences should:
Be relevant to mothers’ specific learning needs
Immediately transferable to real-life contexts
Involve choice in readings, assignments, and projects for optimum relevance
Provide certification or credentials that can advance career, learning, or life goals
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Women as learners also tend to be “connected” learners, according to Elisabeth Hayes and Danielle D. Flannery in their book Women as Learners (2000). According to Hayes and Flannery, women tend to have a larger and more active corpus collosum (a structure that links the right and left hemispheres of the brain). When they learn, more diverse areas of the brain are activated, and therefore learning and knowledge are highly relational—to prior knowledge, past experiences, emotions, personal interactions, etc. Women also tend to value personal connections and relationships, and so integrating relationship-building can help facilitate learning for women and, by proxy, mothers. That said, women also tend to be the cultivators of the family tree and often maintain social networks. So providing opportunities for supportive social interaction that fosters learning is positive; creating more time burden for mothers…not so much. To foster connection in learning experiences for mothers:
Create optional opportunities for social interaction, (group projects, public or private forums, or small group sessions, etc.)
Take time to understand the learner and their prior and current life experiences
Offer opportunities to connect new material to stores of prior knowledge and experience
Draw relationships between new material and everyday experience
Help learners find ways to relate new material to their current needs and social roles
Offer different ways of learning the same material to meet the needs of different types of learners and to layer learning experiences
Provide scaffolding activities (small introductory activities), especially for topic areas where female learners may have limited prior knowledge due to social norms or for learners with limited or long-past formal learning experience
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash
Mothers’ social roles, including their roles as mothers, shape their needs for learning. But what are mothers learning about, and why? I’ll explore that topic in the next post. Read on and we’ll continue to learn together :)
What helps you learn? What are you learning about in your life right now? Share with this learning community by adding a comment below!
References
Craig L, Mullan K. (2011) How mothers and fathers share childcare: A cross-national time-use comparison. Am Sociol Rev. 2011;76(6):834-861.
Craig, L., Powell, A. (2011). Non-standard work schedules, work-family balance and the gendered division of childcare. Work, Employment and Society, 25(2), 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017011398894
Davenport, J., Davenport, J.A. (1985). A chronology and analysis of the andragogy debate. Adult Education Quarterly. 35. 152-159. DOI: 10.1177/0001848185035003004.
Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hayes, E., Flannery, D. D. (2000). Women as learners: The significance of gender in adult learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Knowles, M. S. (1978). Andragogy: Adult learning theory in perspective. Community College Review. 5. 9-20. DOI: 10.1177/009155217800500302.
Pepin, J.R., Sayer, L.C. & Casper, L.M. (2018). Marital status and mothers’ time use: Childcare, housework, leisure, and sleep. Demography. 55, 107–133. https://doi-org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/10.1007/s13524-018-0647-x
Schieman, S., Ruppanner, L., & Milkie, M. A. (2017). Who helps with homework? Parenting inequality and relationship quality among employed mothers and fathers. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 39(1), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9545-4
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