Como me produzo estudante de Pedagogia: Narrativas autobiográficas de uma mãe solo.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the challenges faced by a single mother in the university environment, investigating how the reconciliation between motherhood and academic life shapes her personal and professional trajectory. Based on an (auto)biographical approach and bibliographical review, the study explores the structural, social and psychological difficulties that I experienced when facing double (or triple) shifts in higher education. The research highlights how the lack of institutional support, the overload of parental responsibilities and social stigmas contribute to processes of academic exclusion, aggravated by markers of race and class. The results reveal strategies of daily resistance developed by this mother, from informal support networks to the redefinition of university spaces. The autobiographical narrative of the author, a black woman, single mother and Pedagogy student at the Federal University of Tocantins, illustrates these challenges, highlighting episodes of institutional discrimination (such as exclusion from classrooms for being accompanied by her son) and the precariousness of student retention policies. The conclusion is that university policies that recognize motherhood as a legitimate dimension of academic life are urgently needed, proposing: flexible working hours, maternity leave for students, teacher training for intersectional realities, and expansion of childcare facilities. The study reinforces that the presence of single mothers in universities is a political act that destabilizes exclusionary norms, demanding structural transformations so that no woman has to choose between the right to education and the exercise of motherhood.