1st Edition

Unfit Subjects Education Policy and the Teen Mother, 1972-2002

By Wanda S. Pillow Copyright 2004
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    Wanda Pillow presents a critical analysis of federal law and polciy towards pregnant teens, representations of teen pregnancy in popular culture and educational policy assesses how schools provide educational opportunities for school aged mothers. Through in- depth analysis of specific policies and programmes, both past and present, thsi book traces America's successes and failures in educating pregnant teens. Unfit Subjects uses feminist, race and poststructural theories to inform a satisfactory educational policy.

    Introduction 1. Constructing Teen Pregnancy as a Problem 2. Title IX and the Discursive Climate of Education for School-Aged Mothers 3. Schooling Responses to Teen Mothers: Absence, Colds and Disabilities 4. The Teen Mother as a Student: Who is She and What Do Schools Do with Her? 5. The 'Dual-Role' Model of Schooling the Teen Mother 6. Incitement to Discourse: Talking Sex in Abstinence-Only Education Movements 7. Education for Teen Mothers

    Biography

    Wanda S. Pillow

    "Pillow’s potent, sophisticated text takes its place within a growing body of feminist scholarship that seeks to interrupt the demonization of pregnant and mothering teens and their symbolic use in debates about declining family values…[this text is] a useful call to action for school workers committed to equitable schooling practices, for scholars interested in gender and education issues, and for advocates for the rights of young mothers to reach their full human potential."--Lucy E. Bailey, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering (2009), Vol. 9, No. 1: 236-237