Navigating Student Motherhood in a Precarious Urban Context: Perspectives from Higher Education in Uganda

Doris M Kakuru

doi:10.1177/00131245211027549

Abstract

This paper reports findings of a study on young mothers living in Uganda’s poor urban areas which have been politically labeled as informal settlements and therefore not eligible for social services delivery. Although 59% of all school dropouts in Uganda are due to young motherhood, the national education policy, and practice automatically exclude young mothers. Past studies on student motherhood addressed student mothers of all ages, and were not focused on poor urban communities. The qualitative study involved young female participants enrolled in institutions of higher learning aged, between the 17 and 25 and investigated the magnitude of their marginalization and exclusion. Study participants were purposively selected using snowball technique. Data were collected using life history interviews and observation. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded, and thematic analysis was done. The key themes are the context of urban poverty and student motherhood, lack of counseling services, poor law enforcement, and abandonment. The paper discusses how the young women navigate motherhood and education, thereby advancing the discourse on student motherhood in precarious educational contexts of urban poverty.

Highlights

Student mothers are women who are pursuing academic courses
Previous research found that parenting students generally face unique challenges regardless of their age, gender, social class, and marital status, no research to date has focused on young mothers living in poor urban contexts
The study set out to investigate how young student mothers living in urban poverty in Uganda navigate young single motherhood while pursuing academic courses at university or college

Summary

Introduction

Student mothers are women who are pursuing academic courses. They are of different ages, marital statuses, ethnic groups, have diverse mothering experiences, and pursue a diverse range of courses. This article discusses young student mothers living in urban poverty who were in the middle of college or university programs after a period of pregnancy-related school dropout. The government of Uganda is not obliged to provide social services to people living in informal settlements. Poor people are attracted to the informal sector for many reasons including the limited government regulations and cheap accommodation. Some people work in the city center but most of them are uneducated low-income earners who migrated from rural areas in search of better urban life opportunities. They live in rented rooms with limited living space. This paper presents experiences of student mothers who re-entered schooling against the odds

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Discussion

Conclusion