A question of gender justice: Exploring the linkages between women's unpaid care work,education, and gender equality

ActionAid International implemented an action-research programme on women's unpaid care work in rural Nepal from March 2011 to December 2012. This social empowerment methodology, Reflect, enabled 106 women to gain recognition for their unpaid care work through their own collection of time-use data. The literacy skills women acquired facilitated greater representation in community meetings calling for a reduction in their unpaid care work rather than shifting this work to girls. The article draws on Fraser's model of gender justice to explore how women's literacy, girls’ education and a more equitable balance of care work are needed to improve women's status.     

Four generations of women's educational experience in a rural Chinese community

Our study sought to understand changes in gender inequality in education across four generations of rural Chinese women's educational experiences in a small community in southern China. The 24 interviews and numerous informal conversations with 12 women showed that gender-based favouritism for men and against women undergirded family expectations, support, and decisions about women's formal education, but this manifested in different ways over generations. It appeared as strict gender division of labour within families, control, or ignorance of women's access to schooling, participants' emotional trauma, lower expectations of daughters' schoolwork, and gender-discriminating language in schools.     

Mothers' Worries During Pregnancy: A Content Analysis of Reddit Posts

Qualitative investigations into maternal worries during pregnancy are limited. The aim of this study was to identify the content of women''s pregnancy-related worries by completing a content analysis of posts on Reddit. A total of 217 posts by 196 unique users were analyzed. Most worries related to infant factors (32.6%), individual factors (27.1%), and antenatal care factors, such as medical procedures (25.2%). The remaining worries related to situational factors (10.9%) and the partner relationship (4.3%). Although most fears related to fetal well-being, other concerns included problems with family members, women''s own mental health, and not being a “good mother.” These findings support calls for antenatal education to more adequately address women''s psychosocial concerns.     

Understanding women's associations in Nigeria: The case of Oun state

This paper has analyzed the characteristic features of women's associations and problems inhibiting their effective participation in rural development projects in Osun State, Nigeria.

One rural local government area was purposively selected in each of the six administrative zones in Osun State, based on high degrees of ruralness. A list of registered or formal women's associations was collected from each of the six selected Local Government Area headquarters. Snowball sampling technique and community key informants were employed to identify the non-registered or informal women's associations in the study area. Sixty women's associations (one formal and one informal from each of the 30 selected rural communities), purposively selected based on performance and availability, were interviewed by means of structured interview schedule consisting of both closed and opened ended questions (to exhaust all possibilities) duly pre tested before use.

A total of 137 women's associations were identified in the study area. The popular goals of the majority were: financial assistance (96.4%), supporting members during ceremonies (95.0%), community development (86.9%), donating to the needy (69.3%), and exchange of helping hands in occupations (51.1%). A majority (53.3%) had between 21–40 members, formed before 1992 (70%), and about 50.6% and 40% disseminated information through minutes of the meetings and interpersonal contact respectively, while 43.3% claimed members' contributions as their major source of finance. About 48.3% met between 11–15 times a year, and 57.1% claimed attendance of meetings as the major responsibility of their members. The participation of the selected women's associations in rural development projects was average, with a mean of about three projects. A significant relationship was found between the participation of women's associations in the development projects of their communities and problems facing them, namely; finance (T=?2.38), tribalism (T=2.37), and lack of community supports (T=?2.39).

The study concludes that women's associations are very prominent in the sampled rural areas. However, inadequate finance, tribalism and lack of community support are among the major problems inhibiting their effective participation in the development projects of their communities.     

TRAINING IN SUPPORT OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN ELDERCARE CAMPAIGN: REPLICATION OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN HOME‐CARE TRAINING PROGRAM

In 1991, the federal Administration on Aging initiated the National Eldercare Campaign to broaden the base of commitment and societal involvement to assist today's vulnerable elderly. With Administration on Aging funding, the project described in this study sought to enhance services to American Indian elders by training individuals as home‐care workers. The project replicated a previously developed American Indian paraprofessional home‐care worker curriculum at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota. This program, which is transferable to Indian and non‐Indian communities, addressed three contemporary aging issues. First, it addressed the need to incorporate diversity and minority aging knowledge into the curriculum of postsecondary education. Second, it provided more accessible and better quality community‐based in‐home care to meet the needs of frail elderly. Third, this training program confronted the pervasive lack of employment opportunities in many American Indian and other minority communities.     

Interior Design Supports Art Education: A Case Study

Interior design, as a field of study, is a rapidly growing area of interest — particularly for teenagers in the United States. Part of this interest stems from the proliferation of design‐related reality shows available through television media. Some art educators and curriculum specialists in the nation perceive the study of interior spaces as a ‘practical application’ of the arts. This article discusses an experiential design problem, originally used in higher education interior design studio courses that was modified and shared with students in third grade to address national academic standards. Later, this same project was modified for use with high school students in the educator's community and with international design students in South Korea. Lastly, the project was presented in a workshop to art education students at a higher education institution. The project was modified to address (1) the age group level and (2) a topic relevant to the audience. Goals of the design project were: (1) to explore creative problem‐solving, (2) to explore the application of design elements and principles, and (3) to increase student understanding of spatial relationships within an interior environment. Findings indicate that the project supported several visual art standards, including perception and community. This project may be of interest to current and future art educators and others interested in the potential of interior design content supporting art education.     

Coordinated Strategies to Help the Whole Child: Examining the Contributions of Full-Service Community Schools

Full-service community schools are designed to increase students, and families' access to comprehensive and coordinated supports, services, and programs such as medical care, food aid, and enrichment activities. Despite widespread support, the research base documenting the efficacy of community schools is still emerging. Analyzing longitudinal data from 6 low-income, predominantly Latino community schools, this case study investigated whether students' participation in community-school programming influenced their attendance and achievement. Multilevel models indicated that youth who participated in extended learning programs or whose families were involved in family engagement opportunities exhibited greater attendance rates and achievement in math and English language arts, when compared to their nonparticipating peers. Findings provide promising evidence on the value of a comprehensive and integrated system of school supports that address the myriad needs of vulnerable student populations.     

Community mobilisation,gender equality and resource mobilisation in adult education

Despite an overall improvement in the educational situation of girls and women in India, there are considerable gender inequalities in education. In the last decade, the Government of India introduced the campaign approach to tackle the problem of widespread illiteracy among women and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups in collaboration with the wider support of civil society. This paper attempts to understand the efforts of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), a voluntary organisation supported by the People's Science Movement, for women's empowerment through its innovative approach to large-scale community mobilisation and organisation at the grassroots. It shows both the potential and limitations of the BGVS in sustaining the process of empowerment among poor and vulnerable women in the state-sponsored literacy campaigns, and challenges in linking literacy with livelihoods issues, development and democracy in the context of limited state support and resources.     

Designing and Implementing a Parenting Resource Center for Pregnant Teens

The Resource Center for Young Parents-To-Be is a longstanding and successful grant-funded project that was initiated as a response to an identified community need. Senior-level baccalaureate nursing students and their maternity-nursing instructors are responsible for staffing the resource center''s weekly sessions, which take place at a public school site for pregnant adolescents. Childbirth educators interested in working with this population could assist in replicating this exemplary clinical project in order to provide prenatal education to this vulnerable and hard-to-reach group.     

What is “appropriate practice” at home and in child care?: Low-income mothers' views on preparing their children for school

In this qualitative, longitudinal study, multiple interviews were conducted over 3 years with 14 low-income single mothers (4 White, 6 Black, and 4 Latino). The women talked about socialization goals for their preschoolaged children as well as their views concerning the role of mother and the role of child care providers in attaining those goals. A central objective for all mothers was preparing their children to succeed in school. Most of the women expected their child's provider to engage in didactic lessons aimed at teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills. However, they all viewed other teacher-structured activities as important (e.g., art, music, cooking, field trips, and book reading). Most did not see play as being related to learning, although they acknowledged the emotional and physical benefits of play. These women's views of learning were not entirely congruent with the constructivist position of many early childhood educators, nor were they narrowly defined solely in terms of academic skills. They were receptive to information from child care professionals and other “experts” when these perspectives furthered their own goals for their children. Their views about preschool learning were linked to other cultural models of childrearing including respecting authority, contributing to one's family or community, and differentially allocating responsibility for teaching to parents or to teachers.     

Value creation in online communities for educators

The popularity and pervasiveness of online communities have led researchers and practitioners alike to closely examine the utility of online communities for supporting and facilitating professional learning. As economic constraints leave fewer resources available for professional development, educators in particular are examining the potential of online communities to enhance and extend traditional professional development opportunities. Leveraging the potential of online communities requires an in‐depth understanding of the value that members find through their participation. This study used Wenger, Trayner and de Laat's value creation framework to better understand cycles of value creation in online communities. Findings illuminate how members with varying perspectives and levels of expertise co‐construct new forms of meaning and understanding in ways that are individually and collectively valuable, and how they apply that knowledge to their professional practice. Additionally, the study offers insight into the ways in which actions of community leaders and a sponsoring organization support and facilitate value creation through different types of activities, tools and interactions.     

Goodbye, “post-pill paradise”: Texturing feminist public memories of women's reproductive and rhetorical agency

Oral contraception (e.g., “the pill”), an iconic technology and everyday object, has shaped women's embodied experiences and notions of self. Feminist remembrances of the pill often credit it with granting women unprecedented agency, sexual and otherwise. This article examines pill advertisements at the time of the drug's emergence. By identifying three distinct user motifs – the reliant beneficiary, the discreet consumer, and the forgetful woman – I trouble a widely reiterated liberatory narrative of technological freedom through scientific and medical discovery. Simultaneously, I examine gendered anxieties that emerge alongside women's increasing capacity for sexual autonomy. Through this index and analysis of expressions of agency, I open a space for reconsidering women's relationship to the pill as a technological object and assay the distributed agency that this ecology suggests. I use this case study to propose the political and theoretical value of more fully understanding feminist agency as paradoxical and to advocate for further investigations into vexing sites of feminist memories.     

Finding feminism,finding voice? Mobilising community education to build women's participation in Myanmar's political transition

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the role played by women activists and educators in mobilising community education to support new opportunities for women's activism in the context of Myanmar's political transition. Recent political reorientations in Myanmar which have resulted in a civilian-led democracy emerging from a repressive military regime, have facilitated increased international contact. Myanmar women activist-educators are rejecting hierarchical relationships and the sterile reproductions of idealised female citizenship evident in some training practices and are promoting a conceptualisation of feminist education. I reflect on the dynamics of this feminist activism, including the adaptation of feminist concepts and terminology, as articulated by activists, and I explore responses to the new avenues for women's engagement which are opening up in the first inter-election cycle.     

Moving Fiercely Linear Preservice Teachers into the Joys of Integrating Art in the Classroom: An Artist Residency in a University Early Childhood and Special Education Program

How can artist residencies for preservice teachers plant seeds for future classrooms? Teacher educators and a teaching artist describe a two-tiered residency in an early childhood and special education program that transformed preservice teachers' attitudes toward visual art and arts integration. Findings are based on teaching artist and instructor reflections as well as a qualitative analysis of student journal entries. Preservice teachers who had no prior art training and were resistant toward abstract painting began to enjoy it and appreciate the value of art for children's learning. They came to recognize visual art as a tool to support social development and children with special needs, understood the importance of process in children's art experiences, and considered ways to integrate art throughout the curriculum. We urge teacher educators and teaching artists to incorporate artist residencies into teacher education programs to prepare future teachers to integrate the arts into the classrooms of tomorrow.     

Feminist Knowledge and the Ivory Tower: A case study

This article is a historical look at the struggle to integrate feminist knowledge into the mainstream higher education curriculum in the UK. The research presented is based on interviews with academics and students of an 'old' university during the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. It forms part of a larger research project on the history of women's studies in higher education in the UK, and is a case study of one institution which resisted the integration of feminist knowledge into the mainstream curriculum. Through an examination of the social relations of the University and the structure of the curriculum, it is argued that feminist knowledge was 'silenced' to a certain extent. The factors which contributed to the resistance of feminist interventions serve to illuminate various aspects of the culture of higher education in the UK, which has historically viewed feminist knowledge, and women's studies, with a degree of ambivalence.     

‘Science Is Truly a Male World.’ The Interconnectedness of Knowledge,Gender and Power within University Education

In the 1970s the vicissitudes of university education were an important impetus for female students and members of staff to formulate feminist criticism on science subjects. Women's studies came into being, aiming at transforming academic scholarship and women's experience in education. Now that women's studies themselves are becoming institutionalised, new problems have developed and we need to question if science is now less of a male dominated bastion. In this article a case study is presented on the ‘trials’ and ‘tribulations’ of female university students at Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands. A theoretical framework is introduced and an analysis of empirical material offered. It is apparent that female students are rather critical of their studies, although generally they do not leave the university before graduating. The university teacher emerges as a gatekeeper, holding the key of the door to the academic community, and using knowledge as a key resource.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEWEY'S AESTHETICS IN ART EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

On the occasion of Dewey's sesquicentennial anniversary, Kazuyo Nakamura explores Dewey's aesthetics, which holds the plurality of art and culture in high regard. Nakamura develops a theoretical foundation for art education in the present age of globalization based on educational insights drawn from Dewey's aesthetics. The theme of this essay unfolds based on three topics: Dewey's view of the educational value of art in general education, the fundamental viewpoint of art in relation to democracy, and the discussion of the educational aspect of individuality and community with respect to the experience of art. Based on Dewey's aesthetics, this essay presents new perspectives on art education that emphasize the realization of personal values, development of intelligent visual literacy, and enhancement of the quality of communication of art, in the context of globalization.     

A Risky Business? Mature Working-class Women Students and Access to Higher Education Correspondence : Diane Reay,Kings College London,UK. E-mail: Diane.reay@kcl.ac.uk

This article looks at the experiences of a small, qualitative sample of 12 working-class women attending an Access course in a large, inner-city further education college. The risks and costs involved in making the transition to higher education were evident in the women's narratives, and both material and cultural factors inhibiting their access to higher education are examined. The desire to 'give something back' which motivated all these women's attempts to move into higher education is discussed. The women were either juggling extensive labour market commitments or childcare and domestic responsibilities with studying. In such circumstances, when any sort of social life is sacrificed, what becomes visible is time poverty, and, in particular, a lack of time for 'care of the self'. Six of the women were lone mothers and it is further argued that complexities of marital status intersect with, and compound, the consequences of class. Beck's thesis of individualisation is used as a backdrop to the women's stories in order to highlight the costs of individualisation for the working classes, but also to problematise the discrepancies and disjunctures between projects of the self and the women's experiences of returning to education. The article concludes with an exploration of the consequences of a policy of widening access and participation for working-class mature women and suggests that, while currently all the change and transformation are seen to be the responsibility of the individual applicant, universities, especially those in the pre-1992 sector, need to change if they are to provide positive experiences for non-traditional students like the women in this study.     

An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Women University Students' Selection of Their Specialty The Question Defined

Education is an important process that brings about true equality, peace, and development. Women's education is necessary so that women may procure knowledge, the cornerstone of which is to lead to equality. Moreover, women's education is directly related to the value of the entire nation and the overall development of the country. As the new century approaches, humanity is faced with rapid developments in information technology and in the economy. This complex, ever-changing world, where countries compete and are mutually interdependent, women must comprehensively raise their own value by grasping knowledge and harnessing their hidden talents to face life's challenges, realize their own value and improve their status in society. Education is the precondition needed to bring these goals to reality. Therefore the serious question of women's education is the major concern of the whole community.     

INTRODUCTION: COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP: PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN AS PRESIDENTS

For many years, I pursued the role of a university professor, a great fortune for me, a reward for loving to read. Moreover, my emphasis, women in leadership roles and administration, gave me anopportunity to research women's ways of leading. In work at the University of Texas with John Roueche, I began to examine the modest gain women were making in that most egalitarian institution, the community college. It occurred to me as it did to others in university research (Twombly, Amey, Sagaria, Townshend, Pancrazio, Duvall, Desjardiens, Moore, Keim) that women's leadership needed a boost. Not content to paint a dismal picture, several thinkers began to examine what efforts and successes guided women's leadership. Most of us had been seriously affected by an insightful new discourse on women led by Gilligan (1982). In a Different Voiced; was a beacon for research, allowing women the privilege of saying there is more than one yardstick for measuring moral responsibility. Women,Gilligan stated,arrived at their responsibilities through care and concern,a different way from the path of justice men focused on.