Organizing with Immigrant Women: A Critique of Community Development in Adult Education

Authors

  • Jo-Anne Lee University of Saskatchewan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v7i2.2229

Abstract

This article addresses two issues in adult education theory and practice in community development. The first is a growing recognition of male, eurocentric, western biases in adult education theory and the second, a glaring lack of the voices, issues and experiences of women, particularly racialized women, in the literature of North American adult education. Based on my organizing experiences with racialized immigrant women, this article deconstructs traditional literature about community development in adult education to reveal an underlying foundational system of beliefs that has privileged the experiences of white, western males. The exclusion of other realities has had serious consequences for what is taken to constitute knowledge and truth in adult education's understanding of community development. The issues and experiences of minority groups, especially racialized women, have not found their way into the knowledge base. Consequently, adult education has been unable to provide really "useful" knowledge to these groups. The article suggests that existing theories of community development in adult education remains limited, selective and partial and in need of revision. It offers some new directions and argues that racialized women's intellectual contributions are urgently needed. Adult education cannot respond to changes and demands arising from global economic restructuring without reformulating its explanatory frameworks.

Résumé

Le présent article concerne deux problèmes de la théorie et de la pratique de la formation des adultes dans le cadre du développement des communautés. Le premier est la réalisation croissante de la présence de parti pris pour les hommes d'origine européenne et de culture occidental, et le second, un manque frappant, dans la littérature nord-américaine traitant de la formation des adultes, des opinions, questions et expériences féminines, en particulier de celles des femmes radalisées. En se fondant sur man expérience dans des organisations de femmes immigrantes racialisées, cet article défait pièce par pièce la littérature traditionnelle sur le développement des communautés par la formation des adultes, pour révéler la présence d'un système fondamental de convictions qui a privilégié l'expérience d'hommes blancs occidentaux. L'exclusion des autres réalités a eu des conséquences sérieuses sur ce qui est considéré comme constituant la base de connaissance et la vérité dans la compréhension du développement des communautés qu'a la formation des adultes. Les questions et l'expérience des groupes minoritaires, en particulier des femmes racialisées, ne font pas partie de la base de connaissance de ce domaine. En conséquence, la formation des adultes n'a pas été en mesure de fournir une connaissance vraiment "utile" à ces groupes. L'artide suggère que les théories actuelles sur le développement des communautés en formation des adultes restent limitées, sélectives et partielles, et qu'elles devraient être révisées. L'article présente de nouvelles directions d'action et propose que la contribution intellectuelle des femmes racialisées est nécessaire de manière urgente. La formation des adultes ne peut pas s'adapter aux changements et aux demandes issues de la restructuration économique globale sans révision de ses structures explicatives.

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Published

1993-11-01

How to Cite

Lee, J.-A. (1993). Organizing with Immigrant Women: A Critique of Community Development in Adult Education. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 7(2), 19–42. https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v7i2.2229

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (1993)

Section

Articles

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