Abstract
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) have been compellingly counseled by Church leaders that motherhood should be women's greatest ambition, and that as such it should demand mothers to be full time in the home; at the same time they have been taught to get all of the education that they can. Mothers with young families must decide if they should continue their educational pursuits or spend their full time in the home. This study sought to research how LDS mothers with young children experience the decision to achieve doctoral education, given LDS Church counsel. A phenomenological approach was selected to study seven LDS women's experiences of deciding to achieve doctoral degrees as mothers of young children. As a theoretical perspective, Women's Ways of Knowing informed this study. It appears that doctorate-achieving LDS mothers likely viewed the world from an epistemological position that allowed them to take part in the process of making meaning from authoritative directives.
Recommended Citation
Hall, Jonathan Glade
(2008)
"Doctoral Education among LDS Mothers: A Phenomenological Study of Making the Decision While Considering Church Counsel,"
Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy: Vol. 32:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/irp/vol32/iss1/3