The Plastic Ceiling Project: Using Arts Based Research to Explore the Pain of Mothers that Work and Study

Since the publication of the Dearing Report in 1997, the UK Government has consistently promoted social mobility and fairness as part of its rhetoric. Yet as Brooks (2012) and others have pointed out, compared with other groups of ‘non-traditional’ students, both student-mothers and part-time students with jobs have been given limited consideration, both in terms of policy intervention and research. Despite the drive for inclusivity in our Higher Education institutions, students with mothering responsibilities who are also in employment, often need to overcome considerable challenges in order to complete the course requirements (Brooks, 2012, Moreau, and Kerner, 2012). Challenges which often result in extensive emotional pain.

Using methods of photo-elicitation and blogging, The Plastic Ceiling Project aimed to create a platform for mothers that worked and studied to discuss this emotional pain, allowing participants to highlight and discuss commonalities within their experiences. Rather than aiming to “solve” problems for participants, this methodology aimed to empower individuals by allowing them to create a shared reality together, co-create knowledge and to give them a vehicle to discuss and resolve difficulties and challenges collectively. This paper considers how an arts-based approach to research may have contributed to achieving those aims