Tag: women

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How a personal development program enhances social connection and mobilises women in the community

Authors: Nandila Spry, Hillsong City Care and Southern Cross University: Teresa Marchant, Griffith University

Summary:  Gender equity and the empowerment of women is a significant international issue. Successful adult education programs are vital to enhance women’s situation. Lessons learned from a personal development program provided for thousands of women are analysed. The program is conducted by community service providers in Australia and internationally, with an Australian evaluation reported here. The three phase evaluation included 500 participants, with pre- and post-tests for a sample of 161, structured phone interviews with 53 and third-party observations from six organisations. The value includes multiple measurements over time, in a thorough evaluation with mixed methods, along with policy and practice implications. Key adult learning issues canvassed include the role of empowerment, adult education and transformative learning. Key findings included that women’s self-esteem, emotional intelligence, purpose and mobilisation increased, with the latter evident in vocational outcomes and social connection. Some women expressed interest in facilitating the program for other groups. As one facilitator observed ‘the program really empowers women to tap into their own gifts and talents’. Lessons learned encompassed improvements to the program including sustainable social networks, since for these women purpose in life and mobilisation were intertwined with social connection and helping other women.

Keywords: community, empowerment, evaluation, personal development, self-esteem, women

 

 

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 54_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Empowerment of women through literacy education: some issues for Nigeria’s consideration

Author/s: A. Okediran and M.G. Olujide

Edition: Volume 46, Number 1, April 2006

Summary: This paper examines the status of women in the pre- and post-independent era in Nigeria and in contemporary society. It explores the introduction of western general forms of dichotomies, discriminations and apathy that general education has caused in their life, and brought about patriarchal knowledge and man’s domination and control of all spheres of knowledge, work, religion, laws, processes and which have engendered societal disempowerment of women. The paper thus advances adult and non-formal education and counselling programs as tools for empowering women. It also reviews the problems faced by women in society and proffers adult and non-formal education and counselling education strategies as solutions capable of propelling them to contribute their quota to the socio-economic and political development of the nation.

Keywords: women, Nigeria, literacy, general education, non-formal education

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Negotiating learning through stories: mature women, VET and narrative inquiry

Author/s: Jeannie Daniels

Edition: Volume 48, Number 1, April 2008

Summary: This paper explains my choice of narrative inquiry as a methodological approach in my recently completed PhD study. My research investigated learning experiences of mature women learners in VET. Notions of learning as negotiated lived experience called for a methodological approach that privileged the learner’s perspective and opened space in which alternative notions of learning might emerge. From interviews with twelve mature women, I explain how I use stories of learning to understand how these women, as learners with distinct yet diverse life experiences, contextualise their everyday into their VET learning. Some ethical considerations in using other people’s stories in narrative research are also identified. I argue for the use of stories to research women’s understandings of their VET learning and to reconceptualise learning as an ongoing and integrated process that must be understood within the everyday contexts of women’s lives.

Keywords: VET, mature learners, women, experience

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Participation of elderly women in community welfare activities in Akinyele local government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Author/s: Stella O. Odebode

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: This paper assessed the participation of elderly women in community welfare activities in Oyo State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 elderly women from six out of the twelve political wards in the study area. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used to elicit information from the respondents. A focus group discussion was conducted with the elderly women groups, in each of the six wards. Frequency counts and percentages were used to summarise the data, while chi-square and the multinomial logit regression model were also used to analyse the data.

Keywords: elderly, women, community welfare, Nigeria

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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The learning projects of rural third age women: enriching a valuable community resource

Author/s: Glenna Lear

Edition: Volume 51, Number 4, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: As a third age PhD candidate with a passion for learning, I wanted to explore the learning of other rural third age women who live on the Lower Eyre Peninsula (LEP) of South Australia. This reflects the methodological stance of heuristic inquiry, which requires the researcher to have a passionate interest in the phenomena under investigation, and in this case includes my tacit knowledge as a third age learner and long-term resident of the region. I deliberately chose six very influential women over 50 years of age who have transformed their rural communities into vibrant ‘can do’ societies better able to cope with the economic, environmental and social changes of the last two decades. I wanted to know how they adjusted to the lifestyle changes in their middle years, after their children left home, their third age, how they adapted to the social and economic changes in rural life, and what they learned as community change agents and leaders of community organisations, boards and community development committees.

My research methodology gave them the opportunity to reflect on their autobiographies as co-researchers during our two informal conversations about their learning. I discovered that, at different stages in their lives, these midlife women intuitively realised that they needed to do something for themselves in the wider world, independent of the farm and their family, which required them to learn and change. They are passionate lifelong and lifewide learners, continually searching for something that challenges, excites and extends them. This paper discusses their lifewide learning and personal development in community activities and formal educational institutions, which has been personally rewarding and enormously beneficial for community viability and wellbeing. Although the numbers are low and the women come from a small remote region of South Australia, there are similar women of action in almost every community, both rural and urban, who continue to make a difference.

Keywords: rural, third age, women, community, change agents, development, learning

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 51_4_Special Edition. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Launching a career or reflecting on life? Reasons, issues and outcomes for candidates undertaking PhD studies mid-career or after retirement compared to the traditional early career pathway

Author/s: Tom Stehlik

Edition: Volume 51, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: The Commonwealth government provides fee exemption for any Australian who undertakes a PhD. This policy is presumably based on the ‘clever country’ assumption that an educated population will develop and contribute to social and economic capital. Continue reading “Launching a career or reflecting on life? Reasons, issues and outcomes for candidates undertaking PhD studies mid-career or after retirement compared to the traditional early career pathway”