(De)Coloniality of Mothering: Race, Gender, and Mothers in Schools

This study builds on decolonial, Chicanx, and Black Feminist Theory to explore how “mothering” as a phenomenon has been theorized and how it manifested in our respective research sites: (a) within Somali immigrant mothers in urban communities in the United Kingdom; and (b) how the role of mothers was understood and deployed in predominantly White suburban Ohio. We draw on stories from our research to argue that the modern/colonial gender system constructs ideas and possibilities of motherhood in different ways depending on the sociopolitical and epistemological locations of those engaged in motherwork. We argue that decolonial mothering includes pedagogies of collectivism necessary for healing and joy. And finally, we reflect on how the findings from our studies can contribute to liberatory practices through projects of de-linking from discourses of coloniality in academic spaces.