BETWEEN LOVE AND EXHAUSTION – AFFECTION, CARE, AND RESISTANCE IN SINGLE MOTHERHOOD OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN IN INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS
Keywords:
Solo Motherhood, School Inclusion, Autism, Care WorkAbstract
Solo motherhood of autistic children, in the context of school inclusion, is situated within a scenario marked by structural, affective, and institutional tensions. On the one hand, public policies and normative discourses affirm the right to inclusive education; on the other, exclusionary school practices persist, alongside weaknesses in teacher education, a lack of intersectoral support networks, and the almost exclusive responsibility placed on mothers for their children’s pedagogical, therapeutic, and emotional support. In this context, the daily lives of these women are shaped by a continuous overlap of care practices, negotiations with schools, confrontation with institutional ableism, and the management of psychological suffering, producing an ambivalent experience situated between love, resistance, and exhaustion. The object of this study is the analysis of the experiences of solo motherhood among women who are mothers of autistic children in the process of school inclusion, focusing on the mobilized affects, care strategies, and forms of resistance constructed in response to school demands, gaps in public policies, and gender inequalities that permeate care work, through the lens of classical and contemporary theorists. The research is guided by the following guiding question: how do solo mothers of autistic children experience, signify, and challenge school inclusion processes, articulating affects, care practices, and strategies of resistance in the face of institutional demands and material conditions that shape their daily lives, from the perspective of classical and contemporary theoretical frameworks? Theoretical references include the works of Badinter (1985), Bourdieu (1989; 2001; 2012), Boyd (2013), Collins (2009), Freire (1992; 2014a; 2014b; 2014c), Grinker (2008), Lacan (2001; 2017), Lamott (2011), Machin (2018), Milton and Ryan (2022), Mitchell (2007), Mont (2001), Moore (2012), Naseef (2012), Robison (2013), Scheuermann, Webber, and Lang (2008; 2019), Stock Kranowitz (2006), Suskind (2014), Werneck (1997), Winnicott (1964; 1975; 1988; 1990; 1999; 2005; 2021), Zoja (2001), among others. The study adopts a qualitative approach (Minayo, 2007), with a descriptive and bibliographic design (Gil, 2008), and a comprehensive analytical perspective (Weber, 1949). The findings indicate that the school inclusion of autistic children, when experienced through solo motherhood, is sustained by intense care work that is not institutionally recognized, marked by emotional overload, female responsibility, and gaps in public policies. Mothers mobilize affects as a source of everyday support, transforming care into a political practice in the face of school and state neglect. The study reveals that these women produce knowledge, strategies of resistance, and forms of agency that challenge the normative discourse of inclusion. At the same time, it highlights the presence of institutional ableism and the naturalization of maternal exhaustion as a condition for the functioning of inclusion. Thus, solo motherhood emerges as a space of denunciation, reinvention, and critical production of social justice in the educational field.
