Special Session

Professional and Pedagogy / Composition and Rhetoric

Vanessa Osborne (University of Southern California)
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Michelle Rosado (University of Southern California)
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Articles on parenting in academia often fall into feminist clichés about balance or having it all; while during the pandemic, much of the discourse illuminated the impossible triad of pandemic parenting and care work, academic productivity, and teaching an increasingly struggling student cohort. Navigating the roles of parent and professor is challenging, but can we shift from a pervasive deficit framing to an asset-based one? Our aim is to convene a roundtable of like-minded faculty, with the hope that attendees will leave with ideas on how parenting and care work—despite their very real challenges—can be an asset in the classroom.

Navigating between the roles of parent and professor is challenging, and the rather limited scholarship and coverage of the topic communicates much of these stark realities. These two complex and often at-odds roles are framed as something to be managed, organized; conversations around parenting and academic careers focus on deficits like “child penalties,” experiences of “mom guilt” (less so “dad guilt”), and differences in tenure rates for those with or without childcare responsibilities. But can we shift from a pervasive deficit framing to an asset-based one? Are there skills, knowledge, and values that can be translated from parenting into our pedagogy—while always being mindful of our students’ emerging autonomy and adulthood?

In the first two decades of the 21st century, articles on parenting in academia often fell into feminist clichés about having it all or balancing roles (particularly women’s) to achieve success in both family and career. During the pandemic, much of the discourse illuminated the impossible triad of pandemic parenting and care work, maintaining academic productivity, and teaching an increasingly struggling and needy student cohort. Although the pandemic destabilized childcare and academic routines, Zoom schooling facilitated what father and academic Jonathan Fitzgerald called in an Inside Higher Ed column, “parenting in public”—though the public of Zoom rooms was, of course, an attenuated public.

In our roundtable, we look forward to discussing how parenting, during and after the pandemic, can inform our pedagogy: through care and empathy, creativity and connection, and meeting students where they are. We hope to convene a roundtable of faculty to consider how our multiple roles might enrich one another, and that attendees will leave with ideas on how parenting and care work, despite their very real challenges, can enrich our pedagogy and be an asset in the classroom.