Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study explores the complexities of professional and caregiving roles experienced by academic mothers through the innovative framework of Triangular Ethnography. Integrating feminist ethnography and ludology, the study employs memes as ethnographic prompts in a game-based methodology to illuminate the challenges, resilience, and humor of academic motherhood. Participants engaged in randomized storytelling rounds that revealed key themes: the unrelenting emotional labor of being the default parent, the blurred boundaries between work and home, the strategic use of humor as resistance, adaptive coping through strategic play, and the undervaluation of academic labor by family, society, and institutions. The findings contribute to feminist scholarship by offering insights into the lived realities of academic mothers while advocating for systemic reforms in institutional policies and academic culture. Methodologically, the study highlights the potential of ludological approaches for qualitative inquiry, emphasizing relationality, reflexivity, and the transformative power of play.
Source: Journal of educational thought.
DOI: 10.55016/apcf3n54
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7204231926