This important book breaks new ground in addressing issues of gendered learning in different contexts across the (adult) life span at the start of the 21st century. Adult learning sits within a shifting landscape of educational policy, profoundly influenced by the skills agenda, by complex funding policies, new qualifications and the widening/narrowing participation debate. The book is unique in highlighting the centrality of gendered choices to these developments which shape participation in and experiences of lifelong learning.

Gendered Choices critically examines the continued expansion of a skills-based approach in areas of lifelong learning, including career decisions, professional identities and informal networks. It explores key intersections of adult learning from a gender perspective: notably participation, workplace learning and informal pathways.

Drawing on research from a range of contexts, Gendered Choices demonstrates that for women the public/private spaces of work and home are often conflated, although the gendering of 'choice' has largely been ignored by policy makers.

The themes of the book bring together some of these critical issues, explored through the multiple and fractured identities which constitute gendered lives. The book addresses these in an international context, with contributions from Canada, Spain and Iran that provide a wider international perspective on shared issues.

Inhalt

About the Editors.- About the Contributors.- Introduction; Sue Jackson, Irene Malcolm and Kate Thomas.- Part One: Learning Pathways Gendered Learning.- Introduction Part One; Irene Malcolm, Sue Jackson and Kate Thomas.- 1. Re-asserting a relational model of teaching and learning: a gender perspective; Ursula Murray.- 2. Widening Educational Participation : masculinities, aspirations and decision-making processes; Penny Jane Burke.- 3. Innovative educational models for women returners in science, engineering and technology professions; Clem Herman, Barbara Hodgson, Gill Kirkup and Elizabeth Whitelegg.- 4. Women's Choices Shattered: the impact of gender violence at universities; Esther Oliver.- Conclusion Part One; Irene Malcolm, Sue Jackson and Kate Thomas.- Part Two: The Agenda for Gender in Workplace Learning.- Introduction Part Two; Kate Thomas, Sue Jackson and Irene Malcolm.- 5. Women work-based learners: factors affecting lifelong learning and career opportunities; Linda Miller.- 6. Where is gender within the workplace learning agenda?; Suzanne Hyde.- 7. An opportunity to widen participation through work-based learning? The impact of gender; Anita Walsh.- 8. Educated women in the labour market of Iran: changing worlds and new solutions; Narjes Mehdizadeh and Gill Scott.- Conclusion Part Two; Kate Thomas, Sue Jackson and Irene Malcolm.- Part Three: Identity, Intimacy and In/formal Pathways.- Introduction Part Three; Sue Jackson, Irene Malcolm and Kate Thomas.- 9. Transitions in professional identity: women in the early years workforce; Carrie Cable and Gill Goodliff.- 10.- Getting by' or 'getting ahead'? Gendered educational and career decision-making in networks of intimacy; Alison Fuller, Ros Foskett, Brenda Johnston and Karen Paton.- 11. Power, resistance and informal pathways: lifelong learning in feminist nonprofit organisations; Leona English.- 12.Lifelong Learning in later years: choices and constraints for older women; Jan Etienne and Sue Jackson.- Conclusion Part Three; Sue Jackson, Irene Malcolm and Kate Thomas.- Conclusion; Irene Malcolm, Sue Jackson and Kate Thomas. Index.