Babies and books : social workers’ role in supporting pregnant and mothering teenagers to pursue their educational aspirations

Abstract

This research study aims to expose the educational experiences of pregnant and mothering teenagers within Maltese mainstream schools, highlighting the barriers to education completion and the support and resources available. Moreover, the roles of social workers are being examined to analyse whether and how these professionals are supporting teenage mothers in maintaining or furthering their academic aspirations. A qualitative research design was executed to attain an in-depth understanding of the schooling experiences of pregnant and mothering students and the roles fulfilled by social workers. Data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with twelve participants, who were chosen via purposive sampling. The research participants are all professionals who have worked with pregnant and/or mothering teenagers, including education social workers, counsellors and guidance teachers. The inclusion of different professionals enhanced this study through gaining various opinions regarding the social workers’ role with student mothers. The emergent data from the interviews was subjected to a thematic analysis. This study generated some interesting findings. Pregnancy was seen to have an impact on determining the academic path of some teenagers, who either opted to terminate, postpone or enhance their educational goals. Various factors, such as physical exhaustion, emotional stress, social stigma, burden from dual responsibilities and economic constraints were deemed to deter pregnant and mothering students from school completion. Institutional barriers were predominantly present in mainstream schools, particularly Secondary schools, which frequently excluded these students with the aims of concealing their pregnancy and preventing contamination of sexual immaturity. Consequently, pregnant students were frequently transferred to ‘Servizz Gћożża’, an alternative programme which does not provide any academic instruction and thus, disrupts educational progression. The social work roles of supporting the teenagers’ families, providing practical arrangements and promoting education completion, were declared important to support student mothers. Moreover, participants highlighted that the number of school social workers, who are primarily assigned on tackling absenteeism, is not sufficient in meeting the comprehensive needs of pregnant and mothering students. These findings suggest that schools need to acknowledge the pregnant and mothering students’ rights to remain engaged in education through the implementation of flexible measures to accommodate them better. Social workers should further acknowledge the academic needs of pregnant and mothering teenagers. The number of social workers and other support professionals in schools need to be increased to take a preventive stance when working with students at risk of dropping out. Considerable changes in policy are also put forward to provide equitable academic opportunities for this client group and appropriately address any discriminating barriers.