On the High Wire

Education Professors Walk Between Work and Parenting

By:
George Theoharis, Syracuse University
Sharon Dotger, Syracuse University

A volume in the series: Work-Life Balance. Editor(s): Joanne M. Marshall, Iowa State University. Jeffrey S. Brooks, Curtin University. Bonnie Fusarelli, North Carolina State University. Latish C. Reed, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. George Theoharis, Syracuse University.

Published 2015

The purpose of the work/life balance series is to highlight particular challenges that higher education faculty face as they participate in the demands of the academy and try to prevent those demands from invading their personal lives. On The High Wire looks at a specific subset of university faculty, education faculty with school-aged children, and the specific professional/personal balance these faculty need to find. The title On the High Wire suggests the precarious nature of the “walk” for education faculty who are parents of school-aged children. We know that our identities are central to how we experience the world and how the world reacts to us. This reality is clearly visible in this book. These multiple identities and roles come into conflict at multiple points and in different ways. This book explores these identities and roles through autoethnographic accounts written by varied education faculty in order to make these tensions visible for the field to address.

CONTENTS
Introduction, Sharon Dotger, George Theoharis, and Lauren Shallish. Note on Author Biographies. SECTION I: Protect and Serve: How do I protect and serve my own children? It Takes a Village... A Facebook Village: On Advocating for My Black Son. Dancing With Demons. Magnet School Mom. Navigating Family, Education, and Orientation Identities in Schools: My Struggles to Make School Choices for My Son. At the Intersection of Heart and Mind. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Learning to Make Peace With the System. Finding Space and Place for the Next Step on the High Wire. Delusional Commitments, the Collateral Damage of Divorce and the Superpowers of True Teacher Friends. Loving and Listening: A Father and Three Daughters Reflect On Life Together. Reflections on a Clarifying Conversation: Balancing the Responsibilities and Promises of Life in the Academy. Let’s Go Home. Cover Story. Do the Ends Justify the Means? The “Unembraceable” Boy, the Dilemma and the Critical Incident of Summer 2013. Teaching to Grade Level or Teaching to Mastery: Our Decision to Homeschool. I’m Talking but No One is Listening: My Journey to Find High Quality Public Education. Three Spaces, One Body: Navigating Motherhood, Academia and Community Engagement. SECTION II: Who Am I?: Wh at is my role with my child’s school? Homeward Bound. A Tale of Two Institutions or... Myths and Musings on Work/Life Balance. Navigating Porous Boundaries. Professor Parent: Networking Privilege. A Very Tired Cheerleader: Work and Parenting in the Trenches of Inclusive, Urban Education. “Brandon’s Dad is Gay!” The Struggles and Successes of One Gay Family. Humbling Journey. Inner Conflicts Between What I Know and What I Experience: Making Invisible Tensions Visible. Living in the Intersection: Reflections of a Dual Language Parent. Walking the Balance Beam. Did They Really Just Say That? Parenting as Social Activism. A Liminal Space: Navigating K–12 Schools and the Academy as a Parent. Not Sure Who I Am. She Can’t Touch Books and the Secretaries are Teaching Math: Where Do I Direct My Attention? Negotiating Majority-Minority Contradictions as a Latina Parent and Teacher-Educator. About the Authors.