WRITING IN PRACTICE VOL 11

ABSTRACT
Supporting young people, being part of their growth, was the reason I stayed in teaching for 17 years. Yet, how realistic are leaders in education about the demands of motherhood alongside teaching? Why is it that the largest demographic to leave the profession over recent years has been women aged 30-39 (McShane and Sheppard 2024)? Finding myself part of this statistic, I sought a methodology to explore the retention crisis further. An autoethnographic approach to memoir enhances my exploration of what teaching is like for many women, and how their challenges likely increase when they become mothers. Creative non-fiction can extend the discussion on how to best enable ‘teacher-mums’ to thrive in the profession, for their benefit and the benefit of the young people they teach. I compiled a questionnaire (Dec 2023 – Jan 2024) asking teacher-mums of children under 18 about mental load, teaching workload and the current education system. Overall, responses indicated most are at ‘burnout’ and would not recommend teaching as a career to other mothers. Today we have a better focus on the wellbeing of young people, but the wellbeing of teachers can feel like an afterthought. Here, I explore the issues facing teacher-mums and how memoir can open up a dialogue around this.

KEYWORDS

Teacher, Mother, Memoir, Teacher-mum, Creative Non-fiction, Autoethnography, Wellbeing, Voice, Mental load 

HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
Caddy, Isabel. (2025) Not Only To Write Well. Writing in Practice. 11  DOI: 10.62959/WIP-11-2025-02