Researching Gender in Adult Learning

The Editors: Joanna Ostrouch is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Sociology of Education, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland). Her interests concern social and cultural aspects of gender and learning, gender socialization, balancing work and family life.Edmée Ollagnier is Associate Professor at the Department of Adult Education, University of Geneva (Switzerland). Her feminist research work is centered on gender, knowledge, social and professional recognition.

• Contents: Joanna Ostrouch/Edmée Ollagnier: Introduction: claiming space - making waves – Edmée Ollagnier: Gender, learning, recognition – Agnieszka Zembrzuska: Gender aspects of career counselling in Poland: a Foucauldian perspective – Elżbieta Wołodźko: Reflectivity and emancipation in feminist action research – Linden West: Gendered space: men, families and learning – Joanna Ostrouch: Researching with gender sensitiveness: two cases – Monika Grochalska: Qualitative methods in social mobility research – Tuula Heiskanen: Approaching gender issues with action research: collaboration and creation of learning spaces – Ingrid de Saint-Georges: «She will never be a mason»: interacting about gender and negotiating a woman’s place in adult training and education – Agnieszka Bron: Biographical methodology in gender studies and adult learning – Edyta Łyszkowska: Polish women’s mimetic behaviour under TV influence – Borislav Tchalovski: School context and stereotypes reproduction: the role of the teacher – Sheila Gaynard: Choices and transitions in lifelong learning and life course development: one woman’s story – Anna Vidali: Women and knowledge: a study of teachers in early childhood education.

«Although there have been some changes in gender roles and identity, gender inequalities have not gone away. Most people who participate in adult education across Europe are women. This book is important for keeping gender on the map in adult education research and addressing feminist issues. The chapters, although looking at different aspects of gender and adult education, reflect a broadly common approach in using qualitative, humanistic and subjective approaches to research. They stress the importance of using the life history method or action research as means of giving voice to women as well as advocating a democratic approach to research. The book also reminds us of how wide and broad the ‘moorland’ of adult education and learning has become across Europe.» (Barbara Merrill, University of Warwick, UK)«This book superbly fulfils its role placed in the introduction: claiming space and making waves. The chapters express claiming space not only for the gender discourse but also give floor to the contemporary discourses on adult learning and epistemology of scientific research. It is both for academics and for practitioners.» (Ewa Kurantowicz, University of Lower Silesia, Poland)«The book, and the network from which it arose, are also important for keeping gender at the forefront of an agenda for research on the education of adults, and for exploring such an agenda from a range of European perspectives.» (Sue Jackson, Studies in the Education of Adults)