Conker(quer) Time Again: How to Win at Boys Games

Authors

  • Valerie-Lee Chapman North Carolina State University

Abstract

I examine the gendered nature of university adult education and how women continue to be disadvantaged in the "games" which characterize many graduate and professional programs. How can we change the "rules," or substitute "girls'" rules, for those in play? I suggest that, as women working for change, we first need to acknowledge the discursive practices and structures of university adult education as a "boys' game." I intersperse stories of women learning at university (drawn from my empirical research with women, and my everyday experience), with theoretical insights from post-modern and post-structural scholarship. I suggest we maintain the strategic essentialism of the feminist project, and work within the gendered spaces available to us. We can then make combined use of both gender and liberatory models of feminist pedagogy to improve women's learning experiences in their graduate education.

Résumé

Dans cette étude, j'examine la formation permanente en milieu universitaire sous l'angle des rapports hommes-femmes et la manière dont les femmes continuent à se trouver désavantagées par ces «jeux» qui caractérisent nombre de programmes d'études supérieures et de formation professionnelle. Comment pouvons-nous changer les règies du jeu ou leur en substituer qui soient conformes à notre manière de jouer, nous, les femmes? Je propose que, en tant quefemmes engagées pour le changement, nous devons tout d'abord reconnaître le caractère masculin des pratiques discursives et des structures de la formation permanente en milieu universitaire. J'emaille cet article d'histoires de femmes qui étudient à l'université (elles sont tirées de ma propre recherche empirique auprès de femmes ainsi que de mon expérience personnelle), en y ajoutant des perspectives théoriques fondées sur la recherche dans les domaines du post-modernisme et du post-structuralisme. Je propose que nous conservions l'essentialisme stratégique du projet féministe tout en travaillant au sein des espaces où s'exercent les rapports hommes-femmes et qui nous sont accessibles. Ensuite, nous pouvons également combiner les modèles de rapports hommes-femmes et les modèles de libération afin d'améliorer les expériences d'apprentissage des femmes dans leur programme d'études supérieures.

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Published

2003-11-01

How to Cite

Chapman, V.-L. (2003). Conker(quer) Time Again: How to Win at Boys Games. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 17(2), 20–38. Retrieved from https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/cjsae/article/view/1852

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2003)

Section

Articles

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