Considering gender in adult learning and in academia: (in)visible act
RECENSÕES
Ostrouch-Kami´nska, Joanna, Fontanini, Christine, Gaynard, Sheila, (Eds.)
(2012), Considering gender in adult learning and in academia: (in)visible
act,Wrocl´aw, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnoslaskiej Szkoly Wyzszej, 226 pp.
Maja Maksimovic´ and Tamara Nikolic´ Maksic´1
1Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
With the global economic crisis, European adult education discourse has been
overwhelmed with the issues of employability and there is a growing tendency
for learning to be reduced to skills development, which is already evident in
the recent EU documents. Emancipatory vision of adult education seems to be
forgotten or used as a decoration to competitiveness and economic growth. There
is «a silence on gender issues in adult education» (p. 12). In spite of long
lasting resistance toward gender issues, since 1996 the Network has been
successful in gathering researchers interested in problematization of gender in
adult education and learning, and in keeping debates alive and provocative. It
has raised interdisciplinary discussions related to theoretical aspectsof
gender such as gendered learning, masculinities-femininities, objective/
situated knowledge etc. Methodological dimensionswere also analysed through
gender lenses which questioned andocentric epistemology and mainstream research
approaches which privilege measurement and objectivity at the expense of
narratives and subjective. Although gender is not neglected topic in education,
academics and international organizations are mainly concerned with gender
equality in formal education. Gender dimension in adult education in Europe
remains marginalized. There is a great need to deconstruct obvious and visible,
to enter hidden places and ambiguities and explore the grey area of gendered
learning which goes much deeper than gender differences.
The book Considering gender in adult learning and in academia: (in)visible
act,edited by Joanna Ostrouch-Kami´nska, Christine Fontanini and Sheila
Gaynard, is a rare jewel. The book has been published in 2012 and it consists
of selected papers presented at the two recent ESREA Gender Network
conferences: meeting in Hull, UK in 2009 and Montpellier, France in 2011. The
first conference was dedicated to participation and identity, and the topic of
second conference is concerned with gender issues in higher education. This is
a third publication by the Network that is a result of conferences. As editors
pointed out «the book is an attempt to reveal the invisible gendered aspects
and dimensions of academic structure, interactions, learning strategies, and
effects of education on learners' identities and lives» (p. 18).
The publication is very rich and diverse in theoretical frameworks,
methodological approaches and themes, due to various backgrounds of its
contributors. The interdisciplinary approach to gender research reflects the
complex reality of adult education and academia, and indicates the prevalence
and significance of gender issues.
Selected papers are organized into four chapters:
First chapter Towards Gender Awarenessis dedicated to emphasizing gender
awareness by bringing up the debates around research issues in education and/or
promoting research findings concerning gender issues. The first debate Reason,
unreason and transgression of reason. Regaining trust from margins, by Maria M.
G. Arenas (Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) draws attention to the importance
of (auto)biographical narratives written by female scholars from the field of
education. The research shows that great contribution to understanding
relationship between epistemology and knowledge production can come from Latin
women educationalists. This is followed by the study Gender training in a BA
management of development projects: cultural sensitivity versus gender
competencesby Elisabeth Hofmann (Univ. Bordeaux, France), based on analysis of
students' reactions to gender training, which outlined difficulties in
introducing gender into academia due to the various resistances. Lifelong
learning and gender identityby Emmanuel da Silva (Univ. Europeenne de Bretagne
' Univ. de Bretagne Occidentale) shows how social differentiation in
interaction, when unfavorable, triggers doing gender as a legitimate reference
for social differentiation as a part of identity of students in lifelong
learning process studying to become social workers. The research study of
Martina Endepohls-Ulpe (Univ. Koblenz/Landau, Germany) Are males disadvantaged
in the educational system?draws attention to male issue in education analyzing
the situation of boys in the educational system, showing that if the graduation
level and reading achievement are taken into account, boys fall behind girls in
their educational outcomes. However, this underachievement has no influence on
the learning process of adult males and success on the labor market. The author
concludes that apparently, there are other factors related to gender
influencing career possibilities and occupational context.
The second chapter Policy, Participation and Structureis introducing policy
issues concerning gender in relation to adult learning and education in EU
countries. Feminizing academia: introducing the gender perspective along with
the reform of the higher education system in Polandby Agnieszka Zembruzuska
(Univ. Lower Silesia, Poland) reveals discrepancies in male/female
participation in the Polish academia, where fewer women are present in sciences
compared to humanities. Her research is based around gender perspective in
higher education system reform, which poorly supports the presence of women in
academia, as being oriented towards purely economic aims. What follows are
Portuguese experiences in Cristina C. Vieira's (Univ. Coimbra, Portugal) Gender
dimensions in Portuguese academia: an erratic relationship between political
intentions and curricula priorities.The main focus of this study is on gender
question within post-secondary education curricula, Government support and
national plans for gender equality. Despite the common belief that gender
equality has been established, curricula attentions to this question continue
to be deficient due to conservatism and low autonomy of academic institutions,
negativity towards feminism, resistance to gender issues in public, and
perceiving the research on gender equality as ideology. The next research
example in this chapter Gender differences in the participation in continuing
training in Cataloniacomes from Carla Qesada, Pilar Pineda-Herrero, Berta
Espona, Anna Ciraso and Alexandra Stoian (Autonomous Univ. Barselona, Spain).
The authors analyze the data of two national surveys in order to determine the
factors affecting gender participation in continuing education and training
using the results to make policy recommendations and strategies to improve
opportunities of women to participate in continuing education and their
position on labor market. Maeve's O'Grady (Waterford Univ. Technology, Republic
of Ireland) research Other'-wise: researching the habitus changes in women who
participate in women's community education in Irelandseeks to explore habitus
changes in women's community education centre that arise as a result of
participation. Article Women in Polish pedagogy ' strategies of survival'by
Lucyna Kopciewicz and Aleksandra Purzycka (Univ. Gdansk, Poland) is touching
women's underrepresentation on the highest academic positions trying to reveal
the main obstacles for women to pursuing academic career.
The first paper in the chapter Identity, interaction and learning strategy is
Gender differences in leadership styles of mature studentsby Elmira Bancheva
and Maria Ivanova (New Bulgarian Univ., Bulgaria) who ask question about how
managers can overcome stereotypes related to male and female leadership and
develop more comprehensive competences. The paper Gender representation of
university teachers in verbal interactionsoffers insights into gendered
communication among academic staff and students. The authors Christine
Fontanini and Céline Avenel (Univ. Montpellier, France) concluded that teachers
interact quantitatively less with women and that further analysis of university
teaching that include gender dimensions are needed. In the following article
Gender and academic hidden' experience of students and the lecturers in
Nigerian universities, Felicia I. Ofoegbu, Bola Mary Agboola and Lucy A.
Okukpon (Univ. Benin, Nigeria) raised the issue about proportion of male and
female students at Nigerian universities and their hidden gendered experiences.
They also examined ratio of male to female academic staff and pointed out that
there is significant inequality in professional hierarchy in Nigeria. Denise M.
Carter and Julia Holdsworth (Univ. Hall, UK) continue debate about gendered
learning experiences. The paper Postgraduate learning strategies, gender and
aspirationsis the exploration of student choices at Postgraduate level and how
those choices are constructed by dominant gender bias.
The closing chapter Flexibility, possibilities and (hidden) effects of adult
learningbegins with the qualitative study The importance of flexibility in the
stories of successful part time students.Pam Medhurst and Sheila Gaynard (Univ.
Hall, UK) draw attention toward complexity of male and female experiences of
being a part time student and emphasize the gender differences in student's
journeys that are influenced by dominant understanding of gender roles. Claudia
Quaiser-Pohl (Univ. Koblenz-Landau, Germany) in the paper Academic careers in
science and technology ' why women are less represented than manexamines how
mainstream discourses of educational institutions and teachers shape student's
academic self-concept which further influence their career and academic choices
contributing to the less representation of women in STEM. Joana Ostrouch-
Káminska (University of Warmia and Mazury, Poland) goes beyond work-family
dichotomy and discusses the statistical data that show that women are highly
educated than men, but they occupy lower hierarchical job positions. The
research Higher education, labour market, and a family: is it worth being a
highly educated woman in Poland?offers insights on how men and women co-
construct their marital relations. Following the debate on work, education and
family roles, in the last chapter What do women really, really want? A case
study of mature women training to work in childcare,Hazel Wright (Anglia Ruskin
Univ., UK) criticizes the notion that modern, 21stcentury women completely
moved away from traditional Victorian values and reveals that the female
students engaged in training to work in childcare try to juggle between roles
and put their children and partner first.
Conclusion
Relation between gender and adult education and learning has been explored from
European and global perspective. (1) Taking into account research findings on
gender issues throughout the world, (2) emphasizing the importance of
considering policy issues in relation to gender in educational system and in
academia, (3) further on, addressing gender questions through exploring
identity and integration, and relating to various learning strategies, and (4)
looking into gender topic while discussing possibilities and effects of adult
learning, the book provides substantial body of knowledge, ideas and
information on particularities and depths of gender questions in the field of
adult education and learning. Raising key issues such as gender meaning and
male/female identity in regard to learning experiences, access and
participation in adult education, authors of this book seem to be developing an
ongoing debate on the (hidden) role of gender in adult education and lifelong
learning, and thus contributing to path of making the invisible-visible.
