Young Female Experiences of Teenage Pregnancy, Motherhood and Education

This is a qualitative interpretive phenomenological study grounded in a feminist research

ethic that draws on the narratives of fourteen young women, aged fifteen to eighteen. Semistructured

interviews were conducted to explore the young women's experiences of

pregnancy, motherhood and education. The aim of this Book is to examine how the young

women believed becoming pregnant in their teenage years shaped and influenced their

lives, with a particular focus on their education. The dichotomous constructions of teenage

pregnancy in public, political and academic discourses as either highly problematic or as a

positive and remarkable turning point are critically considered. Attention is paid to the

value judgements that underlie these constructions of teenage pregnancy, problematising

the kinds of agency that are positioned as appropriate for young women.

The young women who participated in this research framed their pregnancy as an

opportunity to change and improve their lives through education. They defined success

through traditional definitions of citizenship and inclusion and viewed themselves as either

socially included or socially excluded on the premise of whether they obtained paid

employment. It is argued their narratives are shaped by feelings of stigma and shame and

by recognition of their frequent positioning as 'problems' to be fixed. It is asserted that both

constructions of teenage pregnancy as either 'negative' or as a 'positive' turning are

invariably problematic as both overtly value and uncritically privilege education and

employment. It is argued that both constructions position young women as projects to be

worked on and to be transformed and improved, providing a limited and limiting definition

of a successful and positive life.