TEDx Talks - Seeing Invisible Student Parents | J. Bart Stykes | TEDxSHSU
The speaker, Bart Stes, discusses the struggles of student parents, who often remain invisible on university campuses. He shares real-life stories of student parents like Roger, Cerie, and Karina, who face unique challenges balancing their roles as students and parents. Roger, a theater major, struggled with missing his daughter during rehearsals but received support from his director, which helped him succeed. Cerie, a new mother, faced financial hardships and struggled to secure her rights under Title IX, leading to repeated course failures. Karina, a single mother, failed an exam because she prioritized comforting her child over explaining her situation to her professor. These stories highlight the lack of awareness and support for student parents, who often feel alienated and unsupported. The speaker calls for universities to create safe spaces and provide necessary resources to support these students, urging instructors, students, administrators, and alumni to play active roles in recognizing and assisting invisible students.
Key Points:
- Student parents face unique challenges balancing education and parenting, often feeling invisible on campus.
- Universities need to create supportive environments and policies for student parents, ensuring they are seen and heard.
- Instructors can help by acknowledging student parents and providing accommodations when needed.
- Students can support peers by being understanding and inclusive, fostering a welcoming community.
- Administrators should invest in resources and policy changes to better support student parents and other invisible students.
Details:
1. 📚 The Exam Dilemma: Balancing Parenthood and Academics
- In an online exam setting, a parent had to leave their computer to attend to their injured child, leading to an assumption of cheating.
- The use of recommended software to monitor exam integrity flagged the absence as suspicious, resulting in the student failing the exam and the class.
- This real-life scenario highlights the conflict between parental responsibilities and academic obligations, and the potential flaws in automated proctoring systems.
- This situation underscores the need for more flexible exam policies that accommodate unexpected parental responsibilities without penalizing students unfairly.
- Institutions should consider implementing contingency plans or alternative assessment methods to support students in similar circumstances.
2. 🔍 The Invisible Student: A Call for Recognition
- Universities should prioritize allowing student parents to be heard and seen as a critical support strategy.
- Highlighting the voice of a single mother underscores the need for recognition and visibility of student parents in university settings.
- Sociologist Bart Stes emphasizes the importance of sociological research in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by student parents.
- Student parents often struggle with time management, balancing academic responsibilities with childcare.
- Financial constraints are a major concern, as student parents typically have higher living costs and less time to work part-time jobs.
- Research shows that providing flexible scheduling and childcare support can significantly improve retention rates for student parents.
- Statistical analysis indicates that student parents make up a significant portion of the student population, yet are often underrepresented in campus policies.
- Case studies highlight successful programs that integrate support for student parents, leading to improved academic performance and well-being.
3. 👶 The Student Parent Experience: Challenges and Realities
3.1. 👶 The Student Parent Experience: Challenges
3.2. 👶 The Student Parent Experience: Support Systems
4. 📊 Unseen and Unsupported: The Lack of Research on Student Parents
- 20% of college students are parents, yet their experiences are largely unresearched compared to other groups like students of color or first-generation students.
- There is a significant absence of research on critical topics such as campus belonging and essential support services for student parents.
- A research project involving 40 student parents was conducted to understand their experiences and identify how universities can better support them.
- Challenges faced by student parents include financial hardship, food insecurity, anxiety, depression, social isolation, guilt, and academic failure.
- Highlighting the experiences of student parents is crucial to making them visible and ensuring they receive necessary support.
5. 🎭 Roger's Story: Balancing Performance and Parenthood
- Student parents face unique challenges that require strategic support from campuses.
- Specific actions like on-campus childcare, flexible scheduling, and financial aid tailored for parents can significantly ease their burdens.
- Roger's story exemplifies these challenges, emphasizing the need for targeted support systems.
- Using fictional names ensures privacy while discussing sensitive personal experiences.
6. 🤰 Cerie's Struggle: Navigating University as a Nursing Mother
- A theater major named Roger struggled with missing his daughter during long rehearsals, affecting his performance. His director's understanding and allowing him to go home to be with his daughter helped him succeed as a father, student, and performer.
- While many students found faculty generally supportive, one-third felt they had to hide their parental status or did not receive needed support from instructors.
- A pregnant student mother risked her and her babies' health by leaving the hospital against medical advice to attend class, fearing lack of support from classmates and instructors to catch up on missed work.
- Most students who reported unsupportive experiences with professors were student mothers, raising questions about instructors' biases towards this group.
- Incorporating diverse perspectives from other student parents would provide a more comprehensive view of the challenges faced.
- Providing more detailed accounts of support systems available or lacking would enhance understanding.
- More context on university policies or cultural attitudes towards student parents could provide valuable insights.
- Highlighting potential solutions or strategies to overcome these challenges could offer practical value.
7. 👩👧 Karina's Choice: Failing to Seek Support Out of Fear
- Research suggests that student fathers may be more confident and successful in negotiating necessary accommodations, although this is not universally experienced.
- Roger, a single dad, felt supported by the campus community as instructors and classmates inquired about his daughter's wellbeing, helping him feel less isolated.
- Most student parents felt alienated and isolated on campus, unlike Roger who found support.
- Cerie, a new mother, struggled with severe financial hardship and chronic absenteeism, impacting her academic performance.
- Cerie dropped a major prerequisite course for the fifth time due to her challenges, highlighting the academic impact of financial and familial stressors.
- Student parents face diverse challenges, with some, like Roger, finding community support that alleviates isolation, while others, like Cerie, experience severe financial and academic setbacks.
- The disparity in experiences points to a need for more consistent support systems tailored to the varied needs of student parents.
- Implementing structured support networks could reduce absenteeism and improve academic performance among student parents.
8. 👩🏫 Supporting Student Parents: A Call to Action for Instructors
- Title IX ensures nursing and pregnant students receive excused absences and opportunities to make up missed work, yet awareness among faculty remains low.
- Students like Cerie struggle to communicate their needs, leading to repeated class withdrawals and delayed graduations, impacting financial stability.
- Karina's reluctance to discuss her circumstances with a professor, opting to take a penalty, underscores a larger issue of fear and misunderstanding.
- Instructors are encouraged to proactively learn about Title IX protections and establish supportive communication channels with student parents to prevent such challenges.
- Providing flexible deadlines, creating an inclusive classroom environment, and offering additional resources can significantly improve student parent retention and success.
9. 🏫 Creating Inclusive Campuses: A Message to All University Stakeholders
- Instructors should utilize course syllabi and activities to establish safe spaces, specifically addressing the needs of invisible students like student parents.
- Students are encouraged to actively seek understanding and offer support to classmates who are parents, fostering a more inclusive peer environment.
- Administrators need to reassess and modify resources and policies to better cater to the unique challenges faced by invisible students, enhancing institutional support.
- Alumni who were once invisible students can leverage their experiences to mentor and support current students, creating a supportive community.
- Invisible students are urged to communicate their needs and circumstances openly to receive appropriate support and integration within the campus community.
10. 🔔 Conclusion: A Challenge to See and Support Invisible Students
- The speaker addressed the issue of "invisible students" on university campuses, emphasizing the need to recognize and support them.
- There is an acknowledgment of the lack of comprehensive understanding of all types of invisible students, indicating a gap in awareness and research.
- The session is framed as a challenge to individuals to reflect on their own campuses and consider how they can identify and aid these students.
- The speaker's intention is to provoke thought and action among listeners, urging them to actively seek out and support invisible students.