Abstract:
This study explores the perceptions and experiences of middle-class women,
mostly mothers, regarding the elementary school education of their children of mixed
heritage. Because it endeavours to provide a forum in which the voices of women are
considered a source of valuable information for educators, this study contributes to
the fields of feminist and mothering research. Participants assign meanings to their
lived experiences (Schon, 1983; van Manen 1997) and contemplate the various ways
in which a mixed heritage mayor may not affect a child's schooling.
Four main participants were interviewed who are mothers whose children of
mixed heritage presently attend public elementary schools in Ontario, Canada. The
study had an emergent design, thus allowing the researcher to make decisions as the
study progressed. Three additional participants were included in the study to provide
a wider perspective on the topic. These 3 additional women were the researcher
herself as she explored her self-conceptual baggage (Kirby & McKenna. 1989); the
researcher's mother in an attempt to consider the motherline (Lowinsky, 1992); and a
volunteer non-mother of mixed ethnicity. The study involved a total of 12 individual
interviews of approximately 2 hours in length. The 4 main participants and the
researcher were each interviewed twice; the researcher's mother and the volunteer
non-mother were each interviewed once. The researcher also attempted a focus group
and kept a journal throughout the research process.
Much of the analysis centers on women's interpretations of the mixed heritage
experience and on their suggestions for elementary school educators. It concludes
pondering on the invisibility (Chiong, 1998) of such children within the school
system and calling for increased teacher education as a way to bring the mixed
heritage experience out of the shadows.
