Introduction

Love and hope sculpt this volume. As the editors, it stems from our personal and professional experiences as mothers, researchers, and teachers. Some readers will quickly identify themselves in the collage of voices and, hopefully, find comfort. Others may have separate experiences in reading these tales. Irrespective of the response, this is a volume of stories. We begin by telling our own, how they intersected, and the converging results of this project. Badges of honor: elementary school teacher, doctorate of education, professor of education administration, and principal investigator of large-scale grants. Combined with my experiences as an African-American woman who regularly researches issues of educational inequity through a sociocultural lens, I believed these markers made me reasonably prepared for motherhood. I theorized and wrote about the sometimes depressing realities of children and childhoods (see Boocock and Scott 2005), particularly in urban settings (see Scott and Blanchett 2011). With combined academic and personal knowledge, I concocted plans for my unborn daughter.