I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Jim Anderson, whose support, encouragement and advice during the long and winding roads of study, research and writing, provided me with confidence that I had something to say, and would “get there one day.” My thesis committee members, Dr. Jean Barman, Dr. Mona Gleason and Dr. Theresa Rogers provided insightful, challenging but always encouraging feedback and direction; I deeply appreciate the approaches to scholarship and the love and respect for ideas they modeled. Anne Eastham, Graduate Student Secretary, in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC, helped me navigate bureaucracy and still feel like a human being. For her support, and the support of the Department of Language and Literacy Education in providing me with diverse and challenging scholarly experiences along the way, I am very thankful.
Anneke van Enk, Janet Isserlis and Lyndsay Moffat provided feedback on earlier drafts of parts of this manuscript, enriching it with their unique perspectives on the contradictory place of mothering and motherhood in our everyday lives. Maureen Kendrick, Lyndsay Moffat and Theresa Rogers offered me the invaluable gift of a quiet place to work. The RiPAL-BC collective, comprising Betsy Alkenbrack, Anneke van Enk, Sandy Middleton, Marina Niks and Bonnie Soroke helped me to remember at critical moments why I love research and literacy work. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded my doctoral studies, and in collaboration with the National Literacy Secretariat valued and promoted literacy research across Canada. Jenny Horsman generously shared her time and inspired me to explore the “everydayness” of my mothering experiences in my research. Jan Hare was a friend throughout, and this thesis took shape through the years of our children’s friendship, and our own; through many a dinner conversation, child care swap and run through the forest.
My parents, Don and Joan Smythe, have always supported their children in whatever
path they chose and this was no exception. Their moral support, pride and loving
care of their grandchildren over the years, made this thesis possible. And finally,
I thank my children, Maya and Sasha, for making mothering much richer, more
wonderful and more delightfully complex than any advice manual could possibly
express. I dedicate this thesis to Andrew Schofield, who understood that this
was but one place in our long journey, “not a question of imagination,
but of faith”
(Brink, 1987).