This insightful book is ideal for students, researchers and policy makers wanting a sound overview of the critical issues of gender in lifelong learning. Asking pertinent questions relating to discourses on policy, the authors offer the reader a rare view of lifelong learning from a gender-focused perspective, filling a gap in the literature and moving current debate on into new areas. Questions addressed include: To what extent can the policy discourses and institutional contexts of lifelong learning be seen as masculinised and/or feminised? What are the gender implications of lifelong learning policy? In what ways are learners’ identities constructed through lifelong learning? Does lifelong learning provide opportunities to challenge or transgress gender binaries? What are the implications for practice?
In this wide-ranging book, Elana Michelson invites us to revisit basic understandings of the `experiential learner’. How does experience come to be seen as the basis of knowledge? How do gender, class, and race enter into the ways in which knowledge is valued? What political and cultural belief systems underlie such practices as the assessment of prior learning and the writing of life narratives? Drawing on a range of disciplines, from feminist theory and the politics of knowledge to literary criticism, Michelson argues that particular understandings of `experiential learning’ have been central to modern Western cultures and the power relationships that underlie them. Presented in four parts, this challenging and lively book asks educators of adults to think in new ways about their assumptions, theories, and practices: Part I provides readers with a short history of the notion of experiential learning. Part II brings the insights and concerns of feminist theory to bear on mainstream theories of experiential learning. Part III examines the assessment of prior experiential learning for academic credit and/or professional credentials. Part IV addresses a second pedagogical practice that is ubiquitous in adult learning, namely, the assigning of life narratives. Gender, Experience, and Knowledge in Adult Learning will be of value to scholars and graduate students exploring adult and experiential learning, as well as academics wishing to introduce students to a broad range of feminist, critical-race, materialist and postmodernist thinking in the field.
In contemporary educational research, practice and policy, ‘indigenous women’ have emerged as an important focus in the global education arena and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This edited book investigates what is significant about indigenous women and their learning in terms of policy directions, research agendas and, not least, their own aspirations. The book examines contemporary education policy and questions the dominant deficit discourse of indigenous women as vulnerable. By contrast, this publication demonstrates the marginalisations and multiple discriminations that indigenous women confront as indigenous persons, as women and as indigenous women. Chapters draw on ethnographic research in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Nepal, Peru and the Philippines and engage with indigenous women’s learning from the perspectives of rights, gender equality and cultural, linguistic and ontological diversity. The book investigates intergenerational and intercultural learning and indigenous women’s agency and power in the face of complex and dynamic changing social, physical, economic and cultural environments. The grounded ethnographic chapters illustrate indigenous women’s diverse historical and contemporary experiences of inequalities, opportunities and formal education and how these influence their strengths, learning aspirations and ways of learning, as well as their values, demands, desires and practices. Chapters 1– 6 and 8 in this book were originally published in a special issue of the journal Studies in the Education of Adults.
Together, the authors examine and compare the importance of such factors as sense of identity, self-esteem, social world, and power in what and how women learn. Drawing from extensive research and scholarship, as well as from personal stories, they reveal the numerous ways in which women experience the learning process. They explain, for example, how women often become personally connected to the object and process of learning. They also analyze these different experiences to show education and training professionals how to better design and conduct programs for women. Women as Learners offers specific recommendations to improve all types of formal and informal adult educational programs, including literacy education, counseling and support groups, workplace training, and professional development activities.
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Transformative ... If Tobia aspires to the ranks of comic memoirists like David Sedaris and Mindy Kaling, Sissy succeeds." --The New York Times Book Review A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above. "A beautiful book . . . honest and funny."--Trevor Noah, The Daily Show "Sensational."--Tyler Oakley "Jacob Tobia is a force." --Good Morning America "A trans Nora Ephron . . . both honest and didactic." --OUT Magazine "A rallying cry for anyone who's ever felt like they don't belong." --Woman's Day As a young child in North Carolina, Jacob Tobia wasn't the wrong gender, they just had too much of the stuff. Barbies? Yes. Playing with bugs? Absolutely. Getting muddy? Please. Princess dresses? You betcha. Jacob wanted it all, but because they were "a boy," they were told they could only have the masculine half. Acting feminine labelled them "a sissy" and brought social isolation. It took Jacob years to discover that being "a sissy" isn't something to be ashamed of. It's a source of pride. Following Jacob through bullying and beauty contests, from Duke University to the United Nations to the podiums of the Methodist church--not to mention the parlors of the White House--this unforgettable memoir contains multitudes. A deeply personal story of trauma and healing, a powerful reflection on gender and self-acceptance, and a hilarious guidebook for wearing tacky clip-on earrings in today's world, Sissy guarantees you'll never think about gender--both other people's and your own--the same way again.
This book offers a clear, accessible exploration of lifelong learning and educational opportunities for women in higher education. It has been developed from work undertaken by members of the Women in Higher Education Network with chapters organized in three thematic sections: Ambivalent Positions in the Academy, Process and Pedagogy at Work, Career – Identity – Home.
Learning and identity development are lifetime processes of becoming. The construction of self, of interest to scholars and practitioners in adult development and adult learning, is an ongoing process, with the self both forming and being formed by lived experience in privileged and oppressive contexts. Intersecting identities and the power dynamics within them shape how learners define themselves and others and how they make meaning of their experiences in the world. The series, I Am What I Become: Constructing Identities as Lifelong Learners, is an insightful and diverse collection of empirical research and narrative essays in identity development, adult development, and adult learning. The purpose of this series is to publish contributions that highlight the intimate and intricate connections between learning and identity. The series aims to assist our readers to understand and nurture adults who are always in the process of becoming. We hope to promote reflection and research at the intersection of identity and adult learning at any point across the adult lifespan. The rich array of qualitative research designs as well as autobiographic and narrative essays transform and expand our understanding of the lived experience of people both like us and unlike us, from the U.S. and beyond. Identity and Lifelong Learning: Becoming through Lived Experience, Volume Two of the series, focuses on identity and learning within informal settings and life experiences. The contributions showcase the many ways that identity development and learning occur within cultural domains, through developmental and identity challenges or transitions in career or role, and in a variety of places from assisted living facilities to makerspaces. These chapters highlight identity and learning across the adult lifespan from millennials and emerging adults to midlife and older adults. The authors examine cultural, relational and social identity exploration and learning in international contexts and within marginalized communities. This volume features phenomenological and ethnographic qualitative studies, autoethnographies, case studies, and narratives that engage the reader in the myriad ways that adult development, learning, and identity connect and influence each other. Praise for: Identity and Lifelong Learning: Becoming Through Lived Experience "We all pay lip service to the importance of lifelong learning, but what is it exactly and how does it come about? The connections between identity and learning are intriguing and complex, especially when it comes to adult learners. In this very thoughtfully organized collection, researchers present qualitative and narrative studies, along with personal narratives, to explore identity development in formal and informal learning environments. Contributions from varied cultural contexts, most with powerful and moving stories to tell, provide insight into how identity, meaning-making, and adult learning and development intersect and influence each other. Psychologists, scholars and educators interested in identity development and meaning-making will find inspiration and fresh understanding in this innovative and enlightening series." Ruthellen Josselson Author of Paths to Fulfillment: Women’s Search for Meaning and Identity "This innovative series on adult development is inspiring and substantive. We hear voices from the margins and stories of courage. We read identity-formation narratives by young adults and experienced professionals who share impressive capacities for transparency, vulnerability, and self-reflection. Many of the narratives are embedded in rigorous qualitative research that highlights diverse ways that identity is shaped through social positionality, lived experience, the quest for individuation, and willingness to encounter life as a dynamic learning process." Jared D. Kass, Lesley University Author, of A Person-Centered Approach to Psychospiritual Maturation: Mentoring Psychological Resilience and Inclusive Community in Higher Education
Whether it is earning a GED, a particular skill, or technical topic for a career, taking classes of interest, or even returning to begin a degree program or completing it, adult learning encompasses those beyond the traditional university age seeking out education. This type of education could be considered non-traditional as it goes beyond the typical educational path and develops learners that are self-initiated and focused on personal development in the form of gaining some sort of education. Essentially, it is a voluntary choice of learning throughout life for personal and professional development. While there is often a large focus towards K-12 and higher education, it is important that research also focuses on the developing trends, technologies, and techniques for providing adult education along with understanding lifelong learners’ choices, developments, and needs. The Research Anthology on Adult Education and the Development of Lifelong Learners focuses specifically on adult education and the best practices, services, and educational environments and methods for both the teaching and learning of adults. This spans further into the understanding of what it means to be a lifelong learner and how to develop adults who want to voluntarily contribute to their own development by enhancing their education level or knowledge of certain topics. This book is essential for teachers and professors, course instructors, business professionals, school administrators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest advancements in adult education and lifelong learning.
This insightful book is ideal for students, researchers and policy makers wanting a sound overview of the critical issues of gender in lifelong learning. Asking pertinent questions relating to discourses on policy, the authors offer the reader a rare view of lifelong learning from a gender-focused perspective, filling a gap in the literature and moving current debate on into new areas. Questions addressed include: To what extent can the policy discourses and institutional contexts of lifelong learning be seen as masculinised and/or feminised? What are the gender implications of lifelong learning policy? In what ways are learners’ identities constructed through lifelong learning? Does lifelong learning provide opportunities to challenge or transgress gender binaries? What are the implications for practice?
This Handbook provides a comprehensive and up-to-date examination of lifelong learning. Across 38 chapters, including twelve that are brand new to this edition, the approach is interdisciplinary, spanning human resources development, adult learning (educational perspective), psychology, career and vocational learning, management and executive development, cultural anthropology, the humanities, and gerontology. This volume covers trends that contribute to the need for continuous learning, considers psychological characteristics that relate to the drive to learn, reviews existing theory and research on adult learning, describes training methods and learning technologies for instructional design, and explores current and future challenges to support continuous learning.
