1,720,977 research outputs found
Working the Paradox with Dorothy Smith : A Reflective Account
No full textIn this reflective account, I revisit my geopolitical location, earlier life and career, and academic journey using the ideas of feminist theorist Dorothy Smith as an interpretive frame. Her theorizing and methodology have been transformative, particularly in relation to gaining insight into a paradox. In order to undertake community-engaged research, poorly recognized by traditional academic expectations of scholarship, I had to find a way to survive within the very institution that devalued this approach. Smith’s conceptual contributions, particularly her regard for women as subjects (not objects) and experts of their lives, encouraged me to undertake this reflection. And her theorizing of how women’s local everyday experiences are connected to complex relations of ruling have brought me new insights. While I had no direct connection with Smith, I experience her passions and ideas as a form of feminist solidarity.Dans ce récit réflexif, je fais un retour sur mon positionnement géopolitique; ma vie et ma carrière antérieures; et mon parcours universitaire en mobilisant les idées de la théoricienne féministe Dorothy Smith comme cadre d’interprétation. Sa théorisation et sa méthodologie furent transformationnelles, particulièrement pour mieux comprendre un paradoxe. Afin d’entreprendre un projet de recherche qui engage la communauté, formule si peu reconnue selon les attentes traditionnelles de l’académie quant à la production des savoirs, il m’a fallu trouver des façons de survivre au sein de l’institution même qui dévalorisait cette approche. Les contributions conceptuelles de Smith, surtout son interprétation des femmes comme des sujets (non pas des objets) et les expertes sur leurs vies, m’ont encouragée à mener cette réflexion. De plus, ses théorisations sur la manière dont les expériences quotidiennes locales des femmes sont liées aux relations complexes du pouvoir m’ont permis de m’ouvrir à de nouvelles perspectives. Bien que je n’aie eu aucun lien direct avec Smith, je vis ses passions et ses idées comme forme de solidarité féministe
Out of the Shadows: Women's Adult Education Leadership in Canada
Full text linkIn Unearthing Canada's Hidden Past: A Short History of Adult Education Michael Welton (2013 p. x) argues that 'Canada has one of the most illustrious, experimental and innovative traditions of adult education in the world' and further notes that Canadians remain relatively unaware of this history.' (p. xv). Women's contributions remain even more invisible compared with what can be called the 'single story' of Canadian adult education in which particular men figure prominently. Women have, throughout the history of Canadian adult education, been involved with creating new organizations and institutions, providing formal and formal spaces for adult learning, and taking the lead within social movements fighting for social justice, particularly for women's rights. This article aims to highlight some of their efforts. The first part focuses on women's work within social movements. The second part of the chapter focuses on women's leadership in the creation of feminist organizations and spaces within formal institutions, particularly their role in the creation of equality seeking organizations, organizations that were (and are) key sites of adult education, particularly the development of women's critical consciousness about their rights and ways of organizing and demanding social justice
What does it mean to teach? : an arts-based existential exploration with pre-service teachers
No full textTeacher education is a “significant site of adult learning” (Butterwick, 2014). It can also be a place where neo-liberal ideas about how children 'come into presence' in the world are perpetuated. Alternatively, it can be a place where an existential view is adopted with very different outcomes for both teacher candidates and the children in their care. In particular, an existential pedagogy values self-worth and takes into account the individuality of learners as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach. Using Gert Biesta’s conceptualization of teaching as existential, this study explored pre-service teachers’ beliefs about what it means to teach and pursued the following questions: 1) What are pre-service teachers’ understandings of what it means to be a teacher and to teach? 2) How are explorations of existential questions facilitated by an arts-based approach and an art exchange? 3) What possibilities might existentialism offer to pre-service teachers and teacher education programs? The analysis suggests ways in which existentialism might be enacted to the benefit of teacher candidates, teacher education, and the children within our schools. Outcomes of the study include: the importance of exploring and interrogating one’s understandings of what it means to be a teacher and to teach; the potential of existentialism to create space within teacher education for better understanding the individuality of every person; and the possibilities presented by allowing children to bring their ‘newness into the world.’Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat
Exploring the Self/Group Initiated and On-the-Job Learning Activities of Low Income Women
Full text linkThis paper explores the breadth of learning undertaken by small group of low-income women who came together to explore various income generating ideas. Bringing into view these learning experiences disrupts some of the individualistic, sexist and classist assumptions about self-directed and on the-job learning dominating adult education and lifelong learning policy and programs
A life well lived is a life in pieces : a comic poetic exploration in life, disaster, and pedagogy
No full textThrough a comic poetic narrative, this dissertation tells the story of my inquiry as a magpie researcher into different facets and functions of humor with a particular focus on disaster humor and its pedagogical possibilities. I begin with an invitation to the reader to join me on this journey through my narrative approach in which my poetry and photographs figure prominently. Then I offer up some stories of my life to share with readers about my comic worldview. Following these stories, I review humor-related theoretical literature, my own comic worldview, disaster humor and particularly Mexican humor in response to disasters. Examining the function, form and theories of humor also involved engaging with the performances of several select stand-up comedians. My exploration of Mexican disaster humor was further enriched when I travelled to Mexico City where I taught a course on the cultural, social, and political functions of humor at UNAM, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Carrying through the theme of disaster humor, at the end of this dissertation, I briefly examine the humor emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a rather unexpected exploration; as a magpie researcher, it was an opportunity I could not ignore.
As a result of this meandering inquiry, I believe that the pedagogical possibilities of humor require an engagement with discomfort, courage, and vulnerability. When we stop in these moments and spaces of discomfort, courage, and vulnerability, even for a brief moment to consider ourselves and others, a form of distanced intimacy develops. These stops then can reveal to us mechanisms of othering which paradoxically may create inclusions or exclusions. The recognition of this paradox involves a process of distancing which may also produce laughter. In these uncomfortable, at times, fleeting moments lies the possibility of rebellious change.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The politics of needs interpretation : a study of three CJS-funded job-entry programs for women
No full textThis inquiry explored the everyday struggles of several women who worked as coordinators and instructors in three government-funded job-entry programs for women in the non-profit sector. The programs studied included an entry program for native women, a program which trained immigrant women in bookkeeping skills, and a program which trained women on social assistance to enter the construction trades. The work of the staff in these programs was considered in light of a theoretical framework developed by Nancy Fraser. Fraser has called for a different approach -- a more critical discourse-oriented inquiry -- to the study of social-welfare policies and programs. This approach focuses on the political struggle over the interpretation of needs, particularly women's needs, which she sees as central to social-welfare policy-making. In her study of the American system, she has found that "needs talk" is the medium through which inequalities are symbolically elaborated and challenged. She also has found that needs talk is stratified and differentiated by unequal status, power, and access to resources, and organized along lines of class, gender, race, ethnicity and age. For this study, information was collected through interviews with the staff in the three programs, observations of life skills classes, and examination of program proposals. Government and government-related documents were also examined. The analysis revealed that, in the official policy documents at the national level, women’s needs were interpreted within a dominant policy framework which focused on reducing spending, matching workers to the market and privatizing training programs. Programs for women were developed based upon a "thin” understanding of women's needs -- one which focused on women’s lack of training and job experience and ignored the structural inequalities of the labour market and women’s different racial and class struggles. At the local level, analysis of the interviews, observations and documents indicated that the staff struggled to respond to the trainees' diverse and complex needs which the official policy discourse addressed in only a limited way. In their negotiations with the state, the staff employed a plurality of needs discourses, engaging in a process which both challenged and reproduced the dominant policy orientation toward getting women "jobs, any jobs”. There were moments of resistance by the staff to the dominant policy orientation, most notably in the program for native women. The trainees also challenged the narrow interpretation of women's needs, particularly in the program training women to enter the construction trades.
Generally speaking, the analysis indicated that the staff played a crucial role in mediating between women and the state and in producing a kind of discourse which tended to construct the trainees as subjects needing to be "fixed". The analysis also revealed that the relationships between staff, trainees and the state were organized around unequal access to resources based on gender, race and class. In order to transcend the limitations outlined in this study, efforts are required to democratize decision-making, collectively organize the non-profit private sector, challenge privatization and the exploitive practices of the state, and bring alternative approaches which support participatory and dialogical processes of need interpretation. The analysis brings to light the importance of studying the implications of state policies on adult education practice, particularly policies which promote privatization. It also reveals the explanatory power of a feminist theoretical framework which provides a more critical, discourse-oriented approach to examining policy and practice, and the usefulness of this framework for further research and political advocacy.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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