Poetic Inquiry

International Doctoral Students’ Roles as Digital Learners, Educators, and Mothers during Lockdown

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis of unprecedented scale, caused widespread upheaval and significantly affected international doctoral student mothers (IDSMs) worldwide. Due to visa and travel restrictions, some IDSMs began their doctoral work in their home countries in different time zones with limited connectivity and resource access. Others in the United States used digital devices to coparent their children and support significant others. In this article, we describe how we used an interpretive approach, notably poetic inquiry, to delve into the experiences of six IDSMs from Egypt, Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Palestine, and Botswana. Our found poems, a product of this unique methodology, provide educators with a nuanced and enlarged understanding of how technology eased and challenged IDSMs’ roles as mothers, digital learners, and educators during an extended lockdown. Higher education institutions (HEI) committed to creating inclusive spaces can use the found poems to ignite interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral dialogue about how to meet the needs of this underrepresented and underserved population. This article will also aid qualitative researchers interested in exploring poetic approaches for data analysis and representation.