Divergent trajectories through disruption: Narrative portraits of performing arts teacher-mothers

Teaching is understood as emotional, relational and identity-based work, yet little is known about how teacher-mothers negotiate these demands over time, particularly in performing arts education. This qualitative follow-up study returns to four performing arts teacher-mothers seven years after their original participation. Narrative portraits constructed from a follow-up focus group examine how participants retrospectively made sense of changes in their professional and personal lives over that period. Participants retrospectively described how trauma, motherhood, workload intensification and changing forms of participation reshaped their professional identities. Their accounts suggest that institutional expectations of availability, co-curricular labour and visible commitment can position caregiving in tension with professional legitimacy. Co-curricular responsibilities and relational teaching in performing arts extended work beyond formal hours, intensifying these tensions. The study contributes a long-term follow-up perspective to scholarship on teacher identity, arguing that sustaining teachers requires redesigning school systems around caregiving rather than expecting individual adaptation.