1
ANDRAGOŠKA SPOZNANJA
Revija za izobraževanje in učenje odraslih
Vsebina/Contents
Uvodnik/Editorial
Annette Foley
GENDER AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN ADULT LEARNING AND EDUCATION
SPOL IN NJEGOV POMEN V IZOBRAŽEVANJU ODRASLIH
Članki/Papers
Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber, Kathy Sanford
Annette Foley
Renata Šribar
Anitra Goriss-Hunter, Adele Echter, Taiwo Oseni, Sally Firmin
Monika Govekar-Okoliš, Renata Kranjčec
DRIPPING PINK AND BLUE:
SEEING THE UNSEEN OF PATRIARCHY
THROUGH THE FEMINIST MUSEUM HACK
MASCULINE GENDERED SPACE
"IT'S NOT ADEQUATE, BUT OTHERWISE THEY WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND IT": THE GENDER TAXONOMY REVISITED
'UNDOING' GENDER: HOW THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SEIT) WOMEN'S GROUP WORKS ACROSS UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY LINES TO PROMOTE INCLUSIVE STEMM
NALOGE MENTORJA ZA KAKOVOSTNO MENTORSTVO VIŠJEŠOLSKIM ŠTUDENTOM
11 29 39
57 73
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Knjižne novosti/ Book reviews
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Andragoska spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 3-9 DOI: http://dx.doi.Org/10.4312/as.24.3.3-9
Editorial
EDITORIAL
GENDER AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN ADULT LEARNING AND EDUCATION
This issue of Studies in Adult Education and Learning explores gender and its implications in adult learning and education from different world perspectives. For Hearn and Collinson (2017, p. 27) the notion of gender is a "very complex set of embodied, institutionalized structures, practices and processes" and one of the most fundamental and powerful structuring social principles, which is constructed within very diverse contexts. Women and femininities, and men and masculinities, are seen as socially constructed, produced and reproduced, variable and changing across time and space, within societies, and through the life course. The notion of gender is local and global in nature but on the local level femininities and masculinities have to be understood within the context of culture, ethics, religion, space and language.
This thematic issue is concerned with continuing conversations through the investigation of the notions of gender. This special edition offers a rethinking of gender and its place in society. Equity, femininity and the norms of hegemonic masculinities are explored in this edition for the creation of a better, more socially aware reality.
Gender is examined through theories of representation as knowledge making by Dar-lene Clover, Nancy Taber and Kathy Sanford. Their paper looks at the mobilisation of pedagogical practices that enforce and re-enforce hegemonic masculinity and traditional femininity. They explore the museum and make use of the Feminist Museum Hack methodology to counter museum representations of power that perpetuate binaries of masculinity and femininity by taking up the 'battleground' of the museum to look deeper at gender-based images and language.
Hegemonic masculinity is also a theme in Annette Foley's paper where she makes a case that some feminist theorists on masculinity broadly agree that in some cases feminist positions of inequity and disadvantage can not only impact on the capability of women to achieve equal rights and citizenship but can render some groups of men as equally disad-vantaged (Courtenay, 2000). In the Australian context Foley draws from a programme of research on men's sheds to make the case that some men's spaces such as men's sheds can and do contribute to the development of capabilities (Sen, 1997) which in turn develop better health and wellbeing outcomes for vulnerable men.
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Renata Sribar examines the representation of gender-related categories from de Beauvoir to Butler and beyond to ask which discourses related to gendered bodies are liberating and which gendered myths, phrases and arguments are oppressive. The paper discusses the taxonomies of European Union institutions regarding official terminologies and conceptual gender/sex ambivalences in knowledge discrimination in the EU. The paper concludes that there is a lack of gender-related research in adult education which is worrisome considering one of the principles in the field is to foster critical thinking to help combat discrimination.
Anitra Goriss-Hunter, Adele Echter, Taiwo Oseni and Sally Firmin look at 'undoing' gender in the context of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) education at an Australian university. The paper examines the issue of women's under-representation in science education and draws on gender theories that identify education settings such as universities as strategic sites of influence, places where open debates and gender relations are likely to happen. The paper draws from a self-study methodology where women from the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women's Group at Federation University Australia attempt to move beyond the restrictions of the traditional gender narrative to encourage more women to participate in STEMM.
The two books selected to be reviewed for this special edition further direct our attention to the complex nature of the question of gender.
Science (without) Youth: Gendering Early Academic Careers in Slovenia (edited by Ana Hofman). This book is a result of the GARCIA project that targets gender inequalities in academia. The edited book provides an insight into the complex nature of gender regimes in Slovenian academic circles.
Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing Against Equality (edited by Roman Kuhar and David Patterson). This book presents an analysis of the anti-gender movement campaigns in Europe and examines the appropriation of language used against the rights of women, the LGBTIQ community and numerous social others such as refugees and migrants. The book critically explores these campaigns against equality.
The university setting is also taken up by Monika Govekar-Okolis and Renata Kranjcec's non-thematic paper where they discuss the role of mentors in the formal mentoring of college students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. The findings shine light on to the correlation between familiarity of tasks and how they are performed and realised.
Annette Foley
Annette Foley: Gender and its implications in adult learning and education_5
REFERENCES
Courtenay, W. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine, 50, 1385-1401.
Hearn, J. and Collinson, D. (2017). Men, masculinities and gendered organizations. In R. Aldag and S. Nkomo (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management (p. 35). New York: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1997). Editorial: Human capital and human capability. World Development, 25(12), 1959-61.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 3-9 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.33-9
Uvodnik
UVODNIK
SPOL IN NJEGOV POMEN V IZOBRAŽEVANJU ODRASLIH
V tej številki revije Andragoška spoznanja se ukvarjamo z raziskovanjem spola in njegove vpletenosti v področje izobraževanja odraslih z različnih svetovnih perspektiv. Hearn in Collinson (2017, str. 27) povzemata spol kot »zelo kompleksno skupino utelešenih, institucionaliziranih struktur, praks in procesov« ter kot enega najbolj temeljnih in vplivnih družbenih principov, ki je ustvarjen znotraj zelo različnih kontekstov. Tako ženske in ženstvenosti kot moški in moškosti so videni kot družbeno zgrajeni, ustvarjeni in poustvarjeni, spremenljivi in spreminjajoči se v času in prostoru, znotraj različnih družb in življenjskih tokov. Pojmovanje spola je lokalno in globalno, vendar je na lokalni ravni ženskost in moškost treba razumeti znotraj konteksta kultur, etik, religij, prostora in jezika.
S tematsko številko želimo nadaljevati pogovor o spolu prek raziskovanja njegovega pojmovanja, pri čemer spol in njegovo mesto v družbi ponujamo v ponovni premislek. O pravičnosti, ženstvenosti in normah hegemonske moškosti razpravljamo s ciljem ustvarjanja boljše, bolj družbeno ozaveščene realnosti.
Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber in Kathy Sanford raziskujejo spol prek teorij predstav kot nečesa, kar vzpostavljanja vednost. Njihov članek se ukvarja z muzejskimi praksami, ki vedno znova vzpostavljajo hegemonsko moškost in tradicionalno ženstvenost. Avtorice uporabljajo metodologijo t. i. feminističnega muzejskega heka, s katero se uprejo muzejskim predstavam moči, ki ohranjajo binarij moškosti in ženstvenosti, in sicer tako, da na »bojišču« muzeja ponudijo globlji vpogled v rabo podob in jezika z vidika spola.
Hegemonska moškost je prav tako tema članka Annette Foley. Nekatere feministične teo-retičarke se na splošno strinjajo, da v nekaterih primerih nepravični, slabši položaj ne vpliva le na sposobnosti žensk, da bi dosegle enake pravice in položaj kot moški, ampak da lahko v enako slab položaj postavlja tudi nekatere skupine moških (Courtenay, 2000). Na podlagi raziskovalnega programa o moških lopah v avstralskem kontekstu avtorica predstavlja argument, da prostor, namenjen moškim, na primer moške lope, lahko in tudi dejansko prispeva k razvoju zmožnosti (Sen, 1997), ki pripomorejo k doseganju boljšega zdravja in počutja ranljivih moških.
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Renata Šribar sledi razvoju s spolom povezanih kategorij od Simone de Beauvoir do Judith Butler in še naprej ter se na podlagi tega sprašuje, kateri diskurzi, povezani z ospoljenimi telesi, so osvobajajoči ter kateri ospoljeni miti, fraze in argumenti so zatiralne narave. V članku razpravlja o taksonomiji institucij Evropske unije v sklopu uradnih terminologij in konceptualnih ambivalenc na področju spola pri diskriminaciji vedenja v Evropski uniji. Članek zaključuje z ugotovitvijo o pomanjkanju s spolom povezanega raziskovanja na področju izobraževanja odraslih, kar je skrb zbujajoče, saj je eno od načel tega področja prav razvijanje kritičnega mišljenja v boju proti diskriminaciji.
Anitra Goriss-Hunter, Adele Echter, Taiwo Oseni in Sally Firmin se v kontekstu izobraževanja na področju znanosti, tehnologije, strojništva, matematike in medicine (STEMM) na eni od avstralskih univerz ukvarjajo z »odpravljanjem« spola. Njihov članek raziskuje tematiko premajhne vključenosti žensk v znanstveno izobraževanje. Opirajo se na teorije spola, ki izobraževalna okolja, kot so univerze, prepoznava kot strateška prizorišča vpliva, kot prostore, kjer verjetno lahko prihaja do odprtih razprav in odnosov med spoloma. Članek temelji na metodologiji samoizobraževanja, s katerim članice Ženske skupine za znanost, strojništvo in informacijsko tehnologijo na Avstralski zvezni univerzi premoš-čajo omejitve tradicionalnih spolnih pripovedi in spodbujajo ženske, da se vključujejo v STEMM.
Obe knjigi, izbrani za recenzijo v tej posebni številki, še nadalje usmerjata našo pozornost h kompleksni naravi vprašanja o spolu.
Znanost (brez) mladih: Zgodnje stopnje znanstvene kariere skozi perspektivo spola (urednica Ana Hofman) je rezultat evropskega projekta GARCIA, v katerem se ukvarjajo s spolnimi neenakostmi v akademskih krogih. Publikacija daje vpogled v kompleksno naravo režimov spola v slovenskem akademskem okolju.
Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing Against Equality (urednika Roman Kuhar in David Patterson) pa prinaša analizo kampanj, v katerih se ljudje po Evropi mobilizirajo v nasprotovanju razvoju na področju spola, ter raziskuje prilaščanje jezika, uporabljenega za nasprotovanje pravicam žensk, skupnosti LGBTIQ in številnih drugih, na primer beguncev in migrantov. Knjiga kritično raziskuje te kampanje proti enakosti.
Monika Govekar-Okoliš in Renata Kranjčec se v netematskem članku ukvarjata z vlogo mentorjev pri formalnem mentorstvu študentom višjih šol. Ugotovitve kažejo na medsebojno povezavo med poznavanjem nalog in tem, kako dobro so te opravljene in realizirane.
Annette Foley
Annette Foley: Spol in njegove posledice v izobraževanju odraslih_9
LITERATURA
Courtenay, W. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine, 50, 1385-1401.
Hearn, J. in Collinson, D. (2017). Men, masculinities and gendered organizations. V R. Aldag in S. Nko-mo (ur.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management (str. 35). New York: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1997). Editorial: Human capital and human capability. World Development, 25(12), 1959-61.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 11-28 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.3.11-28
UDK: 141.72:374.7 Znanstveni prispevek
Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber, Kathy Sanford
DRIPPING PINK AND BLUE: SEEING THE UNSEEN OF PATRIARCHY THROUGH THE FEMINIST MUSEUM HACK'
ABSTRACT
In response to calls by feminist cultural theorists to develop means to unmask patriarchy, the system of power that lies at the heart of museums that maintain problematic hierarchical binaries of masculinity and femininity, we designed the Feminist Museum Hack. The Hack draws on theories of representation, feminist critical discourse analysis and visual methodologies/literacy to operate as a critical and creative practice that can be adapted to any museum context. The primary aim of the Hack - a methodology and pedagogy - is to provide a lens through which adults can see the unseen of patriarchy and how it hides so cleverly in plain sight in the museum's practices of representation. In this article, we use examples of how we have used the Hack as researchers and educators in various museum settings to expose, decode and disrupt the hegemonic gendered messages in the images, displays, curatorial statements, labels and even in object placement and stagecrafting. We also show how the Hack functions as a practice of 'direct agency', a means to re-write and engage with museum narratives. We argue that the Hack is an important and innovative practice because it turns museums into spaces of 'pedagogic possibility' - sites where we can learn new strategies of feminist opposition to counter the male gaze and its ability to define women's lives.
Keywords: hack, feminist adult education, discourse analysis, visual methodologies, visual literacy, direct agency
PREPOJENO Z ROZA IN MODRO: VIDETI NEVIDNO PATRIARHIJO S FEMINISTIČNIM MUZEJSKIM HEKOM - POVZETEK
Kot odgovor na poziv feministični kulturni teoriji, naj razvije strategije razkrinkanja patriarhije, sistema moči v srcu muzejev, ki ohranjajo problematične hierarhične binarije moškosti in ženskosti, smo oblikovale feministični muzejski hek. Ta temelji na teorijah predstav, feministični kritični diskurzivni analizi in vizualni metodologiji/pismenosti ter operira kot kritična in kreativna praksa, ki je lahko prirejena glede na muzejski kontekst. Osrednji cilj heka - metodologije in pedagogike - je omogočiti uporabo leče, skozi
1 We acknowledge that portions of this paper were presented at CASAE 2018, University of Regina.
Darlene Clover, PhD, University of Victoria, clover@uvic.ca Nancy Taber, PhD, Brock University, Ontario, ntaber@brocku.ca Kathy Sanford, PhD, University of Victoria, ksanford@uvic.ca
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katero lahko odrasli vidijo nevidno patriarhalno in kako se patriarhija premeteno skriva v muzejskih praksah. V članku predstavljamo primere rabe heka, ki smo ga kot raziskovalke in pedagoginje uporabile v različnih muzejskih okoljih, da razkrinkamo, dekodiramo in zmotimo hegemonično ospoljena sporočila v podobah, razstavah, kuratorskih izjavah, oznakah in celo v postavitvah objektov. Pokažemo tudi, kako hek funkcionira kot praksa neposrednega delovanja, načina vnovičnega zapisa in vpletenosti v muzejske pripovedi. Zagovarjamo tezo, da je hek pomembna in inovativna praksa, saj spreminja muzeje v prostore »pedagoških možnosti« - prostore, kjer se lahko naučimo novih strategij feminističnega nasprotovanja, ki se lahko upre »moškemu pogledu« in njegovi sposobnosti, da definira ženska življenja.
Ključne besede: hek, feministično izobraževanje odraslih, diskurzivna analiza, vizualne metodologije, vizualna pismenost, neposredno delovanje
INTRODUCTION
Visited yearly by thousands of adults, museums and art galleries (hereafter simply 'museums') are pervasive features of our urban and rural landscapes. These institutions are such highly authoritative agents of education and knowledge creation they have socialised the public to believe that what they show and tell is always factual, objective, neutral or agenda-free. As a result, museums are the most trusted knowledge-legitimating institutions in society today and this status makes them powerful educators (e.g., Conn, 2010; Janes, 2015). Through what Whitehead (2009) calls 'practices of representation' -displays, exhibitions, objects, artworks, dioramas, curatorial and explanatory statements and labels - museums fuse together carefully constructed textual and visual narratives of what the world was, "is or should be" (Hall, Evans and Nixon, 2013, p. 127). Although different meanings can be made by adults from these diverse representational assemblages, for the most part museum representations support conventional orders of power (Bergs-dottir, 2016; Hooper-Greenhill, 2007). For feminist cultural theorists the 'order of power' most entrenched in museums is patriarchy, which acts as both a practice of representation and a practice hidden through representation. Using hierarchical binary oppositions operationalised through an obfuscated 'masculine gaze', particular understandings of men and masculinity and women and femininity are constructed, explained and normalised. Indeed, 'man' as central establishes a status that is taken for granted as universal and 'gender free' (Bergsdottir, 2016; Pollock, 1988; Voelkel and Henehan, 2016).
Yet, despite their problematic gender-shaping pedagogical sway, museums have been largely excluded as sites where feminist adult education and learning can take place. Plan-tenga (2012, p. 29), however, calls on feminist adult educators to develop new 'tools' to analyse underlying systems of power such as patriarchy "that institutionalise and manipulate identities in ways that justify oppression, discrimination and often violence". Our contribution to her toolbox is the Feminist Museum Hack, an adaptable, embodied pedagogical and analytical process aimed to expose, decode, disrupt and re-imagine the hegemonic fracturing gendered messages sewn into the seams of museum representations.
Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber, Kathy Sanford: Dripping pink and blue...
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We begin this article with a discussion of theories of representation as knowledge-making and mobilising pedagogical practices with respect to enforcing and re-enforcing hegemonic masculinity and traditional femininity. Following this, we move to the Feminist Museum Hack, describing its practice and grounding its application in feminist discourse analysis, visual methodologies/literacies, and the practice of 'direct agency'. Using our own analyses as researchers as well as data collected from hacks with students in British and Canadian museums, we illustrate the potential of the Hack as an instrument to illuminate patriarchal obfuscations in language, image and object placement and museums as spaces of 'pedagogic possibility' - sites where we can learn to critically and creatively challenge the power of the male gaze to make our own stories. For as Ranciere (2009) reminded us, an emancipated community is one of engaged actors, narrators, and interpreters.
REPRESENTATION, SEEING AND KNOWING
For Hall, Evans and Nixon (2013), representation is one of the most powerful and productive socially constructed discursive practices of our time. To represent, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means "to describe or depict, to call it up in the mind by description, portrayal or imagination: to place a likeness of it before us in our mind or in the senses" (in ibid., 2013, p. 2). As a signifying practice acting in a diversity of institutional settings, representations of visual imagery and text have an extraordinary impact on what we consider to be knowledge, to have meaning and value, and to be real or normative. Representation works as a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, and values and insights that provide a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. Representations are therefore not simply "the results of perception, learning and reasoning; they are also processes of perception, learning and reasoning which produce particularised results" (Whitehead, 2009, p. 9).
Carson and Pajaczkowska (2001, p. 1) believe the power of representation resides in 'the seen' because this sense, more than any other, "is considered evidence, truth and factual, as sight establishes a particular relation to the reality in which a visual is considered". Therefore, what we see, and the setting of this seeing, such as the authoritative context of the museum, together play a constitutive role in shaping what becomes reality. Seeing gives organised existence to everything from history to the present, aesthetics to identity. Conversely, probing the shadows of representation, Carson and Pajaczkowska draw attention to the "complex relation between the seen and the unseen" (ibid., p. 1), where the former can act as a façade for the latter; "a means to conceal an underlying system of meaning" (ibid., p. 1). The unseen, too, shapes and mobilises knowing and meaning-making by rendering invisible the experiences of marginalized groups. Representations are neither neutral nor objective; they are ideologically driven and pedagogically intentional (Hall et al., 2013; Hooper-Greenhill, 2007; Marshment, 1993; Porter, 1991; Whitehead, 2009).
Nixon (2013) takes up the power of representation within a context of what he calls 'slow violence'. He argues that we need to re-think 'representationally' invisible practices of
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violence, which continue unseen, yet stealthily affect the lives of the most vulnerable. Nixon positions this as a crisis of the 'unseen' and challenges us to give figurative, discernible shape to this formless, imperceptible threat. Haiven and Khasnabish (2014, p. 5) call this developing the 'radical imagination', the capacity to see and therefore, to think "critically, reflexively and innovatively". The human l'imaginaire, they believe, contains meanings, fixations, and effects that "circulate beneath the threshold of conscious thought" (ibid., p. 5) and, as a form of knowing, l'imaginaire can be mobilised to represent the world not as it is, but as it might otherwise be.
MUSEUMS AND/AS REPRESENTATION
Whitehead (2009) characterises museums as not only made up of representations - discursive constructions such as displays, exhibition labels, text panels, curatorial statements, audio-guides, videos, objects, fabric crafts, and/or artworks - but as themselves 'practices of representation', active agents of knowledge creation and meaning making. Steeds (2014) suggests representations not only regulate what we see, but often give an exalted status to what is being shown by placing discrete objects in "relation to one another through the notion of the dynamic field of vision, i.e. what the visitor sees with one gaze" (Whitehead, 2009, p. 3). Placement thus operates visually and experientially "to position the visitor within such representations" (ibid., p. 19). In other words, 'spacial plays' "have strong discursive functions in emphasising (in some cases literally spotlighting) the particular significance, centrality or relations of objects" (ibid., p. 30).
For Luke (2002), meaning making in the museum is not abstract but organised and performed "as useful knowledge" (p. xxi, emphasis ours). Yet we need to question whether the knowledge that museums perform is or can be what Thompson (1997, p. 23) called "really useful knowledge". Is it "political knowledge which [can] be used to challenge the relations of oppression and inequality" (ibid., p. 23)? Again, museum representations are "in no way objective" but part of the 'visualising technology' of particularised idea formations that, more often than not, support the status quo of hegemony and power (Whitehead, 2009, p. 26; see also Bergsdottir, 2016). Exhibitions in particular are active visualising technologies, "a play of forces that embrace cultural, economic and political trends... an ideal medium for influencing the public" (Steeds, 2014, p. 29). Although Steeds uses the term 'force', museums do not use physical force to make us see what they want us to see. People visit museums expecting to see important artworks, factual stories, examples of human creativity, innovation, 'accurate' historical accounts of society, culture, and even themselves (Whitehead, 2009). Museums therefore rely on what Gramsci (1971) called 'tacit consent' for their "authoritative or definitive interpretations whose legitimacy brooks no challenge" (Whitehead, 2009, p. 31). The force derives from the 'seen' and 'unseen' gendered 'representations,' and 'practices of representations,' with which museum visitors often unthinkingly, and unquestioningly, interact. Indeed, when museum 'texts' are read as expected - superficially or mediated through didactic pedagogical and visualising technologies that govern certain types of seeing, reading and
Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber, Kathy Sanford: Dripping pink and blue...
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decoding - they are more likely to legitimatise problematic narratives and visuals rather than challenge them (e.g. Burnham and Kai-Kee, 2011; Hooper-Greenhill, 2007).
GENDER AND REPRESENTATION
The 'message' is, at best, an embodiment of the aim of the exhibition. The 'code' is the medium of communication, be it text, photograph or object.
Coxall, 1991, p. 85
Sexism and misogyny have become major preoccupations at this particular time in history and they are being tackled in sites ranging from the courts of justice to the military, from film to social media. Refreshingly, articles are appearing almost daily in many mainstream newspapers and on social media, exposing everything from continued wage disparities to deep acts of violence and exclusion. But Bates (2018, p. 25) reminds us in Mysogination that sexism is a persistent "drip, drip, drip" that seeps into our collective consciousness through pervasive representations of "pink and blue [that] promise future princesses and potential presidents, strictly delineated by gender".
Museums play a very active role in this 'drip, drip, drip' of constructing gender consciousness through a hegemony of masculinity and femininity and therefore make representation a feminist issue (Marshment, 1993). Feminist cultural theorists such as Bergsdottir (2016), Marshment (1993), Pollock (1988) and Carson and Pajaczkowska (2001) focus on the role patriarchy plays at the centre of museum representation, working as an 'episte-mology of mastery' and a 'visualising technology' which is often obscured in the folds of museum narratives and images. For them, patriarchy is both an ideology of representation and an ideology embedded in the practices of representation to maintain regimes of masculinity as superior, powerful, and dominant, and femininity as fragile, inferior, and accepting (Bergsdottir, 2016; Connell, 2012). Using the 'masculine gaze,' woman becomes "image and man [becomes] the bearer of the look" (Carson and Pajaczkowska, 2001, p. 137). The 'masculine gaze' also works to essentialise, stereotype or altogether exclude women from the collective human story by placing men at the centre of historical and contemporary narratives (Bergsdottir, 2016; Porter, 1991). Mirzoeff (2013) calls this 'visuality', which he positions as a specific technique by which power visualises itself and as such, convinces or reconfirms understandings such as "creativity [as] an exclusive masculine prerogative [...][,] the term artist automatically refers to man" (Pollock, 1988, p. 29). Applying a feminist lens to natural history galleries, researcher Machin (2008, p. 55) found that galleries:
are usually regarded as places of learning and facts, of science and biological truths [there are many], androcentric biases [where] male specimens dominated female specimens with respect to number, the postures and positions [of dominance and submission] in which they were displayed, and in the quantity and style of language used in interpretative text.
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Machin illustrates here how the 'unseen' masculine gaze can be read or decoded and this is where our story begins.
METHODOLOGY: THE FEMINIST MUSEUM HACK
How can we critically and creatively challenge the gendered codes concealed in the dioramas, artworks, displays, exhibitions, and texts of museums? How do we render visible the indiscernible masculine gaze and disrupt the logic of the gendered hierarchies it naturalises? How do we participate in our own learning as creators rather than as mere consumers of prescribed 'facts'? What imaginative possibilities can arise from interrogating and re-visualising how masculinities and femininities are performed through representation in museums? What pedagogical process could afford us deeper viewing, the possibilities of play, and of re-writing representations as arenas for gender concerns?
Our response to these questions as feminist educators and museum scholars is the intentional practice of teaching and researching in museums called the Feminist Museum Hack. To hack means to enter without authority or authorisation. Although we work from time to time with museum adult educators or curators, for the most part we are not being invited to challenge the authority of the museological masculine gaze, the problematic scripto-visual gender formations concealed in the images and explanatory labels.
The Hack revolves around a series of open-ended questions and engages adults in an embodied learning process of moving through the galleries and analysing what we think we see; in essence, it is about deep seeing and reading as we engulf ourselves in the images and narratives. The questions we use differ for each different museum context and genre -history, textile, human rights, virtual, war, doll, art, industrial, and photography - because each situation and way of showing is different, although there are astonishing similarities as we show below through contrasting. The aim of the questions is always, however, to intentionally provoke what hooks (2010) calls 'the oppositional gaze', a feminist gaze that is questioning, disbelieving and dissenting to function as a practice of resistance to messaging of gender identity and knowledge that hides in plain sight.
We work with students and community groups, using the questions as a guide as they move through a single gallery or exhibition. Some Hack questions are deceptively simple quantitative 'counting' instructions: Count how many works in this gallery are by women and by men; Count how many labels refer to women and how many to men; Count how many labels (or artworks) are about or by LGBTQ2S or non-White artists or historical figures. The majority of the questions, however, are qualitative and probe everything from the ontological framework of the museum to how people are depicted in the artworks or described by the labels. While these questions do not tell the viewer what to see, they are intentional because not only are museums clever in terms of concealment, as we have noted, but Martin (2003) believes that in an unjust world, adult educators must educate with intentionality. In addition, Mohanty (1989) believes 'strategic' critique is essential to any feminist project for revolutionary change. A consistent finding from the opening
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Picture 1: Tallying Male/Female Inequality
activities of the Hack in which we probe participants' views of museums before we begin is that while almost all have frequented museums, few have ever seen or can name anything amiss. Comments are for the most part non-critical, confined to the 'aesthetics of art' or memories of childhood visits. If we are failing to see patriarchy at work behind what we see, then we are not only accepting these problematic gender constructions but are actually participating in their making.
For the remainder of this article, we discuss specific examples of the Feminist Museum Hack and what it reveals through questioning and analysis of images and words. We focus on a number of exhibitions in Canadian and English museums to show how they use vis-uality, relationality, stagecrafting, and language to dominate, negate and other. Whether or not this is overt or done without intention, it is nonetheless 'absorbed' as 'fact', as we noted above, and therefore, it must be unmasked. We also speak to how the Hack takes up the practice of 'direct agency' or creative resistance through art, defined by Mohanty (1989, p. 208) as a "conscious engagement with dominant, normative discourses and representations [through an] oppositional analytic."
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VISUALITY, RELATIONALITY AND STAGECRAFTING
For Rose (2001, p. 137) problematic notions of masculinity are often produced through "discursive visuality", a specific type of "visuality that will make certain things visible in particular ways and other things unseeable [within a particular] field of vision". The Hack employs feminist visual methodologies because they work specifically to draw attention to this visuality in terms of how it structures images to perpetuate and naturalise masculinised notions of gender. For Rose (2001), bringing together discourse analysis with visual methodologies allows us to read and see 'inter-textually'. Discourses are articulated through all sorts of "visual and verbal images [...] and also, through the practices that those languages permit" (ibid., p. 136). "Intertextuality refers to the way that the meanings of any one discursive image or text depend not only on that one text or image but also on the meanings carried by other images and texts" (ibid., p. 136). In more pedagogical terms, we call this 'literacy', which for Giroux (1993) and Freire (2000) is a 'practice of representation', a means to use language to question knowledge and power. Visual literacy as defined by Holloway (2012, p. 150) is the ability "to read and respond to visual images [...][,] the opportunity to make meaning from imagery with similar levels of complexities as in spoken language". Critical and feminist forms of visual literacy take a more political interrogative and questioning approach, deeply probing depictions, exploring, for example, how masculinity and femininity are being conceptualised and visualised (Bergsdottir, 2016; Carson and Pajaczkowska, 2001).
Whitehead (2009) takes us further, arguing it is insufficient to consider museum representations solely as texts and visuals without attending to meaning making from and through physical space. For Bergsdottir (2016) this means attending to the 'stagecraft' of museums, performative contextualisations such as placing, lighting and relationality to represent specific correspondences that often work, as in the case of gender, to reinforce binary oppositions and hierarchies. An example of a Hack question that responds to this would be: What catches your eye in displays or a gallery and why? How are women's artworks or stories positioned in relation to men's? A Hack question such as "What is the unifying story or narrative of the museum and how is it being told?" brings together text, visuals and 'stagecrafting' as it explores ideological and theoretical assumptions.
To discuss notions of visuality, relationality and stagecraft (Bergsdottir, 2016), we draw on our research in Canadian military museums. The hack has been adapted for this context in order to explore how war, militaries, military members, civilians, femininities, masculinities, and the enemy are pedagogically depicted. It is called a Feminist Antimilitarist Learning Hack, and is based on the theoretical concept of feminist antimilitarism (Enloe, 2016). It is important to recognise that these small museums (sometimes consisting of only one room), unlike national war museums, are run largely through the work of volunteers, with little funding, and the artefacts they display are often limited to those that have been donated by local people, typically brought in by family members of those who served. As such, the museums are affected by military institutional and societal norms that privilege the stories of male heroes; donations are linked to these norms in
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that they tend to be about male military members who served in ostensibly heroic ways. The museums are also typically located in armouries, which are large military buildings with drill halls inside and displays of canons outside. The aim of this Hack is not to blame these local museums for the gendered nature of their exhibits, but to problematise them in order to facilitate change.
The questions we ask in military museums include: How is war represented? How is the military represented? How are military personnel represented? How are civilians represented? Are they men or women? Who are the protectors and who are the protected? Who is the enemy? How many of the exhibitions are about women and how many are about men? Which ones are permanent, and which are temporary? What women and men are represented (race, class, disability, sexuality)? What are they doing? How are they positioned?
Mirzoeff (2013, p. xxx) speaks of 'visuality', which he positions as a specific technique by which power "visualizes History to itself". As military museums typically produce visualities of masculine heroism, they are ideal institutions to analyse masculinities and femininities, particularly in order to problematise norms of militarised hypermascu-linity. This form of masculinity is one in which men are expected to be, and are represented as, ideal heterosexual combat warriors, 'real fighters' who are dedicated to the military above all else and are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to protect fragile feminised 'others' in the name of national interest (Taber, 2009, 2018). In reality, military members perform a variety of masculinities and femininities in their service (see Higate, 2003), but militarised hypermasculinity is archetypally valued in museums.
Women are visualised in military museums as civilians, wives, mothers, nurses, and military members. Even those who are engaged in non-traditional roles are saturated in traditional feminine norms and the need for protection. On the whole, in the Canadian military museums studied to date, men are represented as white masculine military heroes (the protectors) and women as white feminine civilian wives and mothers (the protected). The former is prominently displayed ('seen') throughout the museums, as mannequins or on placards, with stories of their courage and sacrifice in relation to specific battles; their medals for courage and honour are on full display. The latter are generally hidden ('unseen') in letters, telegrams, and smaller photographs, with a focus on their connections to specific male military members. When women are more prominent they are typically included in propaganda posters about war bonds, the need to keep wartime secrets, or as 'supports' to men doing the important work of war.
There are at times exhibits dedicated to women. However, here is where we can begin to better see the act of stagecrafting as these are segregated and any complex relationship with the military is largely reduced to female mannequins dressed in military issue skirts, high heels, and make-up. An example is the PEI Regiment Museum (Charlottetown, PE) where a perusal of the exhibit on women illuminated how it was clustered in a back corner that resembled a closet. At the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum (Victoria, BC), the exhibit opens onto the children's play area. At the Niagara Military Museum
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Picture 2: Military Women Positioned with Children
(Niagara, ON), the exhibit on women focuses on the Women's Land Army, an organisation that promoted women working in agriculture to feed the war effort. This exhibit too is in a large cupboard, and includes two children's dolls, one dressed in a land army 'uniform' and another in a sailor suit. Women are therefore relationally bracketed into domesticity, into feminine roles, on the literal and figurative of what Bergsdottir (2016) would call the 'outer rims' of military service.
Women and men of colour are also problematically associated with the enemy, and therefore 'othered'. At the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum, for example, there is a mannequin of a female radio operator with her back to the room and under a Nazi flag. At the Vancouver Island Military Museum, the story of Canada's Black Battalion is positioned next to a mannequin of a Nazi soldier and a photograph of Hitler. An exhibit about Indigenous Peoples in the war is positioned next to Japanese 'enemies' in WWII and across from the home front exhibit. When (white) women and men of colour are so sparsely represented, where they are located in relation to white men, other women, the home front, and the enemy takes on even greater importance. What "the visitor sees with one gaze" (Whitehead, 2009, p. 3) are women as connected to the enemy, as isolated from men, or as connected to the home front and to children. In the next section, we explore how language also discursively positions women and femininities in ways different from men and masculinities.
THE POWER OF LANGUAGE
Almost 40 years ago Spender (1980, p. x) suggested it was time to "unravel the many means by which patriarchy has been created"; in particular, she recognised the importance of language, arguing:
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Every aspect of the language from its structure to the conditions of its use must be scrutinised if we are to detect both the blatant and the subtle means by which the edifice of male supremacy has been assembled. If we are to take it apart we must be able to recognise its form. (ibid., p. 6)
For Rose (2001), discourses are in fact a form of representation that structures
The way a thing is thought, and the way we act on the basis of that thinking. In other words, discourse is a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it. (ibid., p. 136)
Discourse can also shape subjectivity and identity. Museums use language to maintain orders of power, yet visitors tend to look through language and not realise its power to convey ideas (Tannen, 1994).
Feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) is a foundation of the Feminist Museum Hack. It is a practice of analytical resistance, "a political perspective on gender, concerned with demystifying the interrelationships of gender, power and ideology" in discourse (Lazar, 2005, p. 5). Language and texts are analysed through the Hack for how they "sustain a patriarchal social order: that is, relations of power that systematically privilege men as a social group and disadvantage, exclude and disempower women" (ibid., p. 6). Through our various hacks we also explore museum discursive constructions (or exclusions) of those who do not fit neat gender binaries, using gender more broadly as an interpretative category to interrogate the "imbrication of power and ideology" not otherwise apparent (ibid., p. 5). How are men and women described or constructed in the labels or curatorial statements? What types of adjectives are used, do they differ? What role are labels and texts playing? What is being stated, suggested or left out? As noted above, hegemonic patriarchal power is sustained through language - a ubiquitous medium through which ideas, ideologies and societal expectations are transmitted.
As Rose (2001) earlier noted, knowledge is discursive, 'saturated' with power and dependent on assumptions of truth. The Hack allows us to see how the power of language is created as truth. An analysis of curatorial statements in the Royal BC Museum's (RB-CM's) Egypt: The Time of Pharaohs exhibit provided many examples of authoritative language use, or what Tannen (1994) has termed 'report discourse'. These curatorial or explanatory statements - like many others - do not cite a source but rather state information in irrefutable ways, e.g.,
Egyptian men generally wear a short loincloth [...][.] In the Old Kingdom, women's clothing is a simple knee-length dress made from white linen [...][.] The upper classes now wear decorative garments that are pleated, gathered and laced [...][.] However, singers, dancers and musicians often appear scantily clad. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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The application of the Hack enables us to see how museums interweave 'facts' with 'interpretations', using an authoritative voice that seems indisputable. Another example from this exhibit uses curatorial language similarly:
In ancient Egypt, mummified animals are often placed in tombs as food or to keep the deceased company in the afterlife. They may also serve as tributes to Egyptian gods and goddesses who each have their own emblematic animal [...] and demonstrate the devotion of pilgrims unable to afford statuary as an offering.
While these statements seem, on first glance, to be helpful and informative, the language uses passive voice and language that bars no discussion - "animals are often placed" -while then reverting to speculative terms such as "may also serve". These juxtapositions suggest, then, that all of the statement is 'factual'. Going further, curatorial statements do not identify gender in specific terms, but the default is consistently male. The following quotation references 'people' in ancient Egypt, but by reading using a feminist oppositional gaze, we come to see this as referencing men only:
Like many cultures, people in ancient Egypt hope that life eternal follows death and that their burial practices keep them safe for the hereafter. Stone structures and pyramids protect the early tombs of the pharaohs. Later they are carved into the rock of the Valley of the Kings. After entombment, no living person is allowed access [emphasis ours].
Discursive visuality demonstrates authority, and this produces consent for a particular way of understanding the world (Mirzoeff, 2013, p. xxx). Similarly, the RSM's First Peoples Gallery describes a diorama of an Indigenous band meeting at the Qu'Appelle River, "Over the next couple of weeks, they will feast, tell stories, play games, and hunt and garden together. But first, related families sit together, exchange gifts, and smoke the Pipe." In thinking about the 'scripto-visual', the diorama itself features only male figures, so who are 'the families'? The authoritative discourses negate or absent the lives of women and deter alternative interpretations.
Whilst men are described as having agency and control, leadership skills and creating peace, an oppositional reading shows that when women are featured in an exhibit, they are often recognised only for their appearance. For example, Queen Nefertiti, described as "one of the most powerful women ever to have ruled" in ancient Egypt (see https://www. biography.com/people/nefertiti-9421166) is reduced in the RBCM exhibit to "the wife of Akhenaten" and the title of the curatorial panel is Portrait of a Beauty. The descriptive text is, therefore, not about Nefertiti's accomplishments, but her appearance, connection to her husband, and speculation about the artist who created the bust of this 'beauty'. The visual that accompanies the text - what Rose (2001) called 'discursive visuality' - is an image of beautiful Nefertiti, reinforcing the idea that her major contribution to Egypt was her appearance.
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Juxtaposition is a commonly used literary device in museums through which two often disconnected or contradictory terms (and often terms and images) are placed together, for example dark and light, success and failure, masculinity and femininity. This device, used to highlight the contrast between two ideas by placing them in close proximity to each other, can be regularly observed in museum exhibitions. Words are juxtaposed in order to emphasise the ideological message being conveyed. For example, in the RBCM's Egyptian exhibit, a bold lettered panel describes Ramesses II as "The Great One"; in close proximity is the heading "The Divine Consort" to describe Hatshepsut (also a great leader), who was named both only in relation to her husband and described using the term 'consort', a word laden with negative and subordinate connotations.
The ever-present curatorial statements develop 'point of view' in subtle ways to identify unchallenged angles and perceptions of the message being presented, providing authoritative tone to manipulate the reader/viewer's understanding of the narrative that is offered. Coupled with (curatorial) hubris, the statements are powerful and convey their unchallengeable factualness, tending to reinforce the unassailability of the messages. This is also often coupled with the use of euphemisms to moderate language, substituting unpleasant and severe words with more 'genteel' ones in order to mediate or dismiss history's harshness - racism, colonialism and sexism to name but a few - and thus paint quite distorted pictures of events and historical figures to distil male superiority and power. In the next section, we discuss how these learnings have led to new gendered understandings.
CREATIVE DIRECT AGENCY: PRACTISING DISSENT
For Holloway (2012) and Pennisi (2008), critical visual literacy needs to be more than simply analyses of visuals and texts; it must be engagement in a creative practice of activism. Ranciere (2009) also asserts the importance of creating an empowering process that moves people away from being mere spectators towards a sense of "power to act" (ibid., p. 2). Bannerji, Carty, Delhi, Heald and McKenna (1991, p. 77) remind us that "feminism ideally rests on a transformative cognitive approach [...] and direct agency".
In the Hack we take this up through a variety of creative practices and direct agency. One is what we see as an interventionist and disruptive process. We use coloured post-it notes upon which we as researchers or Hack participants write comments and questions or create new labels. Post-it notes also capture conversations that participants have about, for example, representations as problematic visualising technologies and codes of illusion:
A: There are no women in this exhibition.
B: I saw a woman.
A: Really?
B: Well, there was a tea service and a lacy fan.
A: You saw that as a woman?
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Post-it notes are attached to display cases or beside artworks to create a visual disruption and what Marcuse (1978, p. 33) would call an "emancipatory recoding of perception". Writing alternative curatorial statements and questioning those that exist, museum hackers both take up space and take back space dominated by authoritative 'factual' language, challenging the ubiquity of the 'semantic authority' of museum texts and the hegemony of what appear to be 'facts'. When working with groups we have observed that post-it notes are often read by visitors. Some appreciate them. "Oh, you are not taking those down? They have added so much to my visit," exclaimed one woman in an art gallery in England. However, others do not appreciate our interventions and we have listened to racist or sexist diatribes by visitors and been accused of defacing the museum. While unsettling, this 'ire' allows us to explore the pervasiveness of discrimination and the depth of trust that exists in the museum's authority to narrate and imagine our lives. Conversely, 'just ire' (Freire, 2004) also comes from Hack participants, who suddenly begin to see what was in fact before their very eyes as this Hack debriefing comment articulates: "I just did not see it before. I consider myself to be very progressive and conscious. Just how did I miss this? I am very angry now with the museum but also, myself." Anger at injustice does not itself produce change but Martin (2003) and Freire (2004) believe it is where hope for change lies.
Another creative practice of dissent and resistance we use is writing poetry, particularly creating 'found poems' from the language of labels and curatorial statements or exhibition catalogues. Poetry is useful because its "political task is a visionary one, the work of making way for new worlds" (Fisher, 2009, p. 984). For Parini (2008), poetry "matters because it can waken us to realities that fall into the realm of the political" (p. xiii). Like Ranciere (2009), we too believe an emancipatory pedagogy is one where "she composes her own poem with the elements of the poem before her [...]. She participates in the performance of refashioning it in her own way" (ibid., p. 13). The best way, however, to speak of poetry is through poetry, therefore we conclude with two 'found' poems that use the power of juxtaposition to take up different representations of male/female, masculinities/femininities as they were in the museum through the lens of fashion. Ode to the Couturier comes from explanatory statements at the Christian Dior exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and Ode to the Victims from those at a feminist exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto.
Ode to the Couturier	Ode to the Victims
The bible has not taught us so much	Their worries proved to be well-founded
As this master of shape	In the decades long reign
This great conductor of form	Of notorious female fashion dictates
Who astonished the public	Cloth dipped in toxic pigments
By orchestrating away wartime	Testing positive for arsenic
masculine style
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To make women feel like women again
Clothed in 40 metres of cloth and the armour
Of a revival of 19th century corsetry
That obscured the natural to accentuate the waist
And enshrine femininity As the 'new look' of peace
And when brushed against a flame Set instantly alight the women
Imprisoned in steel corseted cages Crafted to create criminally small waists
And mocked mercilessly by caricaturists For their female excess and frivolity
FINAL THOUGHTS
When I walked into the gallery I was a male, white, straight artist who hadn't recognised my privilege as much as I should. [But] the social context of class, race, gender, sexuality is very important.
Hack Participant, England
Museum representations are powerful pedagogical devices that, through the seen and the unseen, influence our understandings of everything from history to ourselves, and they captured our imagination as feminist adult educators. As with the rest of society, museums suffer from denial, erasure, and dis- and misidentification. Although examples exist of progressive representations that challenge patriarchy and take up gender and other social issues, we have found, like other feminist scholars, that for the most part museum representations still tend to perpetuate binaries of masculinity and femininity. Through an all but obfuscated masculine gaze, to return to Bates (2018), they 'drip, drip, drip' through discretely coloured blue and pink narratives in which 'man' is the 'seen', "the central figure in the stories told through exhibitions and displays", and those who do not feature as important in their tales "are pushed to the less discernible outer rims" (Bergsdottir, 2016, p. 128). Museums thus continue to reconfirm that what counts as 'human' is provided by the masculine, but this gendering of culture is seldom straightforwardly visible.
Yet hooks (1992, p. 3) reminds us that "representation is a crucial location of struggle". Ulich Obrist and Raza (2015, p. 2) believe "unsatisfying conditions", such as those in museums, can act as excellent catalysts to incite "the imagination of possibility". We have taken up the 'battleground' of the museum through the Feminist Museum Hack. The Hack is an adaptable tool, which changes questions and focus to fit each museum. It is pedagogical as we engage in dialogue about patriarchy and power in society. It is methodological and analytical in that we use a feminist approach to look deeply at images and language. The Hack is also a creative interventionist practice that engages directly with the "frontier of the male order" by dragging it imaginatively into the open (Porter, 1991, p. 111). Finally, the Hack is an 'intentional' process of 'seeing', an intentional
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means to cultivate an oppositional feminist gaze that can interrogate how and what we see, are able to see or allowed to see in museums and, equally, what we do not see and the implications of the 'seen' and 'unseen' for gender justice and change (Rose, 2001). As an embodied, strategic, critical visual, discursive and creatively engaged practice, the Hack makes an important contribution to the toolbox of feminist adult education. It is where the unthinkable, imperceptible and passive become thinkable, perceptible and actionable and that is what a pedagogy of possibility needs to look like (Manicom and Walters, 2012).
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Voelkel, M. and Henehan, R. (2016). Daughters of joy? A feminist examination of the narrative of Miss Laura's Social Club. In D. E. Clover, K. Sanford, L. Bell and K. Johnson (Eds.), Adult education and museums: Social and cultural animation for change (pp. 79-90). Rotterdam: Sense. Whitehead, C. (2009). Museums and the construction of disciplines: Art and archaeology in nineteenth-century Britain. London: Gerald Duckworth.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 29-38 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.3.29-38
UDK: 37.015.4:374.7 Znanstveni prispevek
Annette Foley
MASCULINE GENDERED SPACE
ABSTRACT
This paper draws on a programme of research examining the benefit of men's sheds in the Australian context. Firstly, the author clears some contentious ground regarding women's disadvantage and equality and acknowledges the position that has been made by feminists relating to the implications of unequal distribution of materials and resources and puts forward a case that uneven distribution of resources cannot only restrict many women but also some men. The author examines men's health status in Australia and drawing from a programme of research discusses the link between men's shed involvement and health and wellbeing benefits. The paper makes use of Sen's Capabilities Approach to put forward the case that men's sheds in the Australian context provide a space where enabling capabilities developed through meaningful activities can benefit men relating to health and wellbeing outcomes.
Keywords: gender, masculine, men's sheds, capabilities, friendship, health
skem kontekstu. Avtorica najprej obravnava nekatera sporna vprašanja o slabšem položaju in neenakosti žensk, upošteva stališče, ki so ga povezano z implikacijami neenake distribucije materialov in sredstev vzpostavile feministke, ter predvideva, da neenakomerna razdelitev sredstev ne omejuje samo številnih žensk, ampak tudi nekatere moške. Avtorica se ukvarja z zdravstvenim stanjem moških v Avstraliji ter na podlagi raziskovalnega programa razpravlja o povezavi med udeležbo v moških lopah in prednostih za zdravje in počutje. Članek uporabi Senov zmožnostni pristop, da predstavi moške lope v avstralskem kontekstu kot koristen prostor, kjer omogočanje zmožnosti, razvitih prek pomenljivih aktivnosti, lahko koristi moškim v povezavi z zdravjem in počutjem.
Ključne besede: spol, moškost, moške lope, zmožnosti, prijateljstvo, zdravje
INTRODUCTION
This article examines the role of Australian men's sheds in the engagement, lifelong learning, health and wellbeing benefits that these spaces can provide for men who are often disadvantaged. The paper draws from a programme of qualitative research undertaken
Annette Foley, PhD, Federation University Australia, a.foley@federation.edu.au
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over several years across Australia to explore the impact, engagement and benefits informal learning in community contexts can have on men's health and wellbeing. The paper explores the notion of men's sheds as gendered masculine spaces and the importance of these spaces as a resource to facilitate positive outcomes for men.
There are some feminist positions on inequity and disadvantage which broadly agree that some masculine structures and hegemonies not only impact the capacity of women to achieve equal rights and citizenship but also render some groups of men as equally disadvantaged (Courtenay, 2000). Indeed, according to Courtenay (2000), contemporary feminist theorists are concerned equally with differences among men (and women) as they are with the differences between men and women. Arguably some of the differences involving men are dependent on what position/s they hold in social structures, in other words, how much power they possess and their capacity to access resources.
When embarking on a discussion about men's disadvantage, it is important to identify potential concerns that some commentators may have when identifying men's disadvantage. These concerns relate to the potential to reduce the focus off funding or support for programmes to address women's disadvantage and inequality, and in turn women's participation in education and training more broadly (Golding, Foley and Brown, 2008; Foley, 2014). This paper2 acknowledges the position that has been made by feminists relating to the implications of unequal distribution of materials and resources and puts forward a case that the uneven distribution of resources can not only restrict many women but also some men, those who do not fit the hegemonic stereotype, from achieving full and equal citizenship (Nussbaum, 2003; Fraser, 2002).
MASCULINITY
Male privilege has been recognised and debated for decades and is characterised in most contemporary societies by men's institutional privilege (Messner, 1997, in Flood, 2003, p. 458), such that men in general receive a surplus of resources, which Connell (1995), describes as a 'patriarchal dividend.'
For Connell (1995), the notion of masculinity or male dominance is played out or enacted in various ways, from hegemonic dominance to subordinate or less powerful configurations of -male-gendered practices such as those of subordinate masculinities. Accordingly, hegemonic masculinities refer to masculine norms, those norms that are desirable and therefore considered to be the idealised form of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinities are represented by particular idealised male stereotypes about what it means to 'be a man'; these stereotypes have in recent history included such things as being strong, unemotional, aggressive, providing for one's family and having limited involvement in household tasks (Monaghan and Robertson, 2012, in Mackenzie, Robertson and Nurmi, 2017). Masculinities
2 This is an expanded and redeveloped version of a chapter in Men Learning Through Life, edited by Barry Golding, Rob Mark and Annette Foley, first published in 2014.
Annette Foley: Masculine gendered space 31
that might be seen as fitting into a subordinate position, those that do not fit the hegemonic stereotype, involve groups such as working-class men, black men, men with disabilities, and homosexual men. No doubt many older and less formally educated men also inhabit this subordinate position. For many men, particularly those who are disadvantaged and unemployed or who are older, this hegemonic measure can leave them marginalized, under resourced and impact negatively on their mental and physical health status.
MEN'S HEALTH STATUS IN AUSTRALIA
Research indicates that men who are economically inactive comprise a large and growing proportion of men in Australia. This lack of economic activity has a significant impact on men's health and wellbeing and men's capacity to contribute or participate in community more broadly (Lattimore, 2007). Coupled with this, there is growing evidence that the very men who are most in need of accessing adult education or vocational education and training are the least likely to access it due to a reluctance to commit to education programmes or a feeling of inadequacy or exposure to ridicule (Woodin and Burke, 2007). Arguably, this is because of preconceived ideas about adult education being for women (Golding, Kimberley, Foley and Brown, 2008), and in part because of their negative experiences of schooling. Either way, commentators have argued that men's health behaviours and life choices are intrinsically connected to gender construction.
The notions of hegemonic masculinity, power and social inequity are important when considering men's unhealthy behaviours and give an insight into how these behaviours undermine men's attempts to make health choices in their lives (Courtenay, 2000). Accordingly, because of the social, gendered and dominant pressures placed on men, men's behaviours, including their health behaviours, are widely considered to be socially constructed in line with hegemonic pressures (Verdonk, Seesing and de Rijk, 2010) that constitute health behaviours as feminine or weak. Living up to these dominant idealised pressures can see men at risk of experiencing mental and physical health issues because of their desire to live up to the idealised stereotyped form of maleness as powerful.
ADULT COMMUNITY EDUCATION
It has been broadly recognised that adult community education (ACE) both in the UK and Australia provides people with benefits not only associated with education but also provides them with health and wellbeing benefits through social interactions (Golding, Kimberley, Foley and Brown, 2008; Foley, 2007; Lewis, 2012; Courtenay and Truluck, 1997) and has a social purpose. Despite these benefits, research shows that in the Australian context, "older women are more than three times more likely to participate in adult education than men" (Beckett and Helm, 2001, p. 54).
In Australia the history of neighbourhood houses, and ACE more broadly, involved women coming together under the then Australian Assistance Plan (AAP) in the 1970s to re-skill. The main themes coming from community houses and learning centres back then
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was the empowerment of the individual and providing a safe and nurturing environment for women to re-skill back into the workforce after staying home to care for their children. A significant factor under the AAP was funding that provided to the neighbourhood houses the provision of childcare, enabling the women to leave their children to be cared for in the centres and houses whilst they had the opportunity to learn (Foley, 2005).
At that time neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Australia tended to be part of a grassroots movement that grew according to the needs of local people. Many of the programmes included computer skills, general education classes such as literacy and numeracy, and pathway courses such as the Certificate of Liberal Arts. The success of neighbourhood houses then, as now, is associated with the informal, drop-in nature of the houses and centres where people can make friends in an informal setting, learn together and feel "comfortable and unintimidated" (Foley, 2005).
Foley, Golding and Brown (2008) in Australia and McGivney (2006) in the UK examined the reasons why men are reluctant to take up education opportunities in ACE settings. Findings from these studies indicate that negative previous experiences at school, feelings of failure, attitudes about ACE learning centres being feminised, and men's view that work is more important to male identity than learning all contribute to men's absence in ACE centres. McGivney (2006, p. 94) argued in her research addressing some of this reluctance that in the case of older men reluctant to engage with learning, there is no easy or short-term solution. She notes that issues of engagement involve:
.. .[psychological risks (of possible failure or ridicule); the social risks (of acting contrary to family or cultural norms) and financial risks (endangering welfare benefits and getting into debt) where there are no guaranteed employment or fiscal returns from learning. (McGivney, 2006, pp. 94-5)
The Australian men's sheds movement has significant parallels to the grassroots development of the neighbourhood house movement in Australia in the 1970s. According to Golding (2015) in his recent book, there are men's sheds now located across Australia, the UK, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and a very small number of sheds in Europe and North America. The strength of men's sheds is associated with its offering spaces that cater for men. Indeed, data taken from the 2013 Men's Sheds in Australia study for be-yondblue and the Carragher's Men's Sheds in Ireland study consistently agree, according to Golding (2015, p. 350), that in both Ireland and Australia:
.virtually all men who participate feel at home in and enjoy participating in the Men's Shed. It is a powerful multiple benefit. Men overwhelmingly 'really enjoy' what they are doing, meeting and making good friends in the Shed, while giving something back to the community and feeling better about themselves.
Other benefits that were identified in the studies included "access to health information, wellbeing, confidence and social skills [which] are valuable icing on the cake" (Golding,
Annette Foley: Masculine gendered space 33
2015, p. 350). Despite the benefits identified, there continues to be mixed commentary about the value of men's gendered spaces.
Certainly, the evidence of men coming together in men's sheds, learning informally from each other and gaining value from their connection to programmes in the shed is clear through the significant expansion of shed-based programmes both in Australia and internationally. There is a strong argument to be made and supported by the beyondblue and the Carragher's Men's Sheds in Ireland studies as well as Golding's extensive portfolio of work on the men's sheds movement, that men's sheds or men's learning spaces and programmes provide men with the choice to participate in an environment that allows them to feel comfortable, better connected to their communities and develop capabilities which in turn makes significant contributions to their overall wellbeing. Indeed, despite some resistance to the measurable benefits of men's sheds to men's health and wellbeing (Wilson and Cordier, 2013), according to Golding (2015, pp. 375-376):
.. .no one can read about men's sheds experiences in Creswick Men's Friendship Shed's Tales from the Shed or Dubbo Community Men's Shed's A Shed Load of Stories and not be moved by the transformational nature of their experiences. It is a very high level of proof to be convinced of and transformed by the positive effect on their own lives, health and wellbeing, expressed in their own words.
Health, wellbeing and community participation are clearly an important and desirable requirement for citizens, both male and female, young or old. Being healthy and connecting with community bring about individual agency and are arguably a fundamental human right (Sen, 1997).
CAPABILITIES FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Learning and its positive impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals has received significant attention from the Australian government over the past decade. For Field (2009) wellbeing is understood as providing a satisfaction for life, feelings of happiness, being fulfilled and contributing to community (Field, 2009). According to Field (2009, p. 4), wellbeing is:
.associated with such social qualities as confidence, optimism about the future, a sense of influence over one's destiny, and social competences that promote satisfying and supportive relationships with other people - and not simply with an absence of diagnosed illness, disability or dissatisfaction. [...] It also, critically, involves the resilience needed to deal with hard times as and when they occur.
Adult educators have consistently emphasised the re-creative function of informal learning and the importance of personal wellbeing through the gathering of resources for
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capabilities (Field, 2009) such as resilience, social and community connectedness and civic engagement for the health of individuals. Indeed, as Golding (2015) has argued, informal learning, such as participating in men's sheds or citizens' involvement in community or leisure activities, is what I would argue as connected with what Sen (1997) describes as human capabilities.
The idea of rights, according to Nussbaum (1997), has been debated by governments and international agencies on a regular basis. Moral questions about human entitlements are fundamental questions and are often related to what is meant by the notion of rights, what basic human rights are and how these rights and entitlements are understood and distributed. Nussbaum (1997, p. 274) writes:
When we speak of human rights, do we mean, primarily, a right to be treated in a certain way? A right to a certain level of achieved well-being? A right to certain resources with which we may peruse one's life's plan? A right to certain opportunities and capacities with which one may, in turn, make choices regarding one's life plan?
Nussbaum, an eminent philosopher, thinker and researcher who has written extensively on human rights and human capabilities, argues that political philosophers and thinkers, when considering the idea of equality and human rights, have tackled the question by asking whether the idea of equality involves the equality of resources, the equality of wellbeing and opportunity or the equality of capabilities (Nussbaum, 1997). Nussbaum draws from the extensive work of Sen (1997) and his ideas involving personal wellbeing, agency and freedom through his pioneering work on the capabilities approach and its importance in debates concerning quality of life.
Sen (1997) argues that an individual's worth is not evaluated merely as economic activity, but rather by recognising the diversity of humanity and drawing attention to the disparity that exists for individuals, such as by gender, race, class, caste or age. Sen's work focuses on embracing human agency and participation. He achieves this by emphasising the role of making choices and acknowledging that different people, different cultures and different societies may have different aspirations and values that make significant contributions to an individual's wellbeing: that a person's wellbeing is related to their capabilities. Human capabilities, he argued, reflect a person's real opportunities and positive freedoms through a choice of lifestyles. Sen argues that to achieve human capabilities, there needs to be intrinsic value if subjects were able to act freely and have the capacity to choose. For Sen, these are the features of a 'good life' (Clark, 2007 in Foley, 2014).
At its core, Sen's argument is centred on the development of an individual's agency: on what an individual "can or cannot actually do" (Sen, 2010, p. 261). People's agency and capacity to be able to do things can be hindered by factors or barriers such as social and environmental conditions, access to resources, sense of identity, age, gender and so on. Sen also acknowledges the external barriers that impede an individual from converting
Annette Foley: Masculine gendered space 35
resources, or commodities. These resources and commodities can come in the form of education into capabilities for disadvantaged groups, such as for men not in paid employment who may have mental and or physical health barriers, or pre-constructed, negative ideas or barriers to education or indeed issues with fitting into the hegemonic stereotypes discussed earlier. For Lewis (2012, p. 526) barriers may also include "income deprivations as well as 'adaptive attitudes,' since people's expressed preferences may be conditioned by acceptance of restricted agency due to discrimination or disadvantage."
Sen's capabilities approach has been criticised by some for failing to supplement his framework with a coherent set of capabilities (Nussbaum, 1988; Williams, 1987). Nuss-baum's version or extensions to Sen's capabilities approach involve the development of a list of capabilities that she argues "isolates those human capabilities that can be convincingly argued to be of central importance in any human life, whatever else the person pursues and chooses" (Nussbaum, 2000, p. 74). These capabilities involve ten principles enumerated under the following headings: (1) Life; (2) Bodily health; (3) Bodily integrity; (4) Senses, imagination and thought; (5) Emotions; (6) Practical reason; (7) Affiliation; (8) Other species; (9) Play; and (10) Political material control over one's environment (Nussbaum, 2000). Many of Nussbaum's principles arguably occur for the men who attend men's shed organisations. Indeed, men's sheds are designed to cater for and develop the capabilities of the men who attend them.
There is a clear argument drawn from the research on men's learning and wellbeing (Gold-ing, Brown, Foley, Harvey and Gleeson, 2007; Golding, 2015) that lifelong and lifewide learning, including incidental and informal learning delivered from learning spaces and learning opportunities that cater for the particular needs of particular groups of men, develop capabilities through men's connections with learning. This occurs through friendships, social participation and learning new skills. What these learning spaces and places produce is considerable practical and economic value to the community with "benefits that are significant for partners, families and carers as well as to the health and well-being of men who participate" (Golding et al., 2007, p. 27). This benefit to men and their communities picks up on Sen's ideas about the social good and wellbeing of society as a whole. For Sen, agency and wellbeing are intrinsically connected, making a lack of agency or freedom of genuine choice equal to disadvantage. It follows that if education or access to learning contributes to an individual's freedom and capabilities, then education and learning are a key contributor to agency.
A SPACE FOR MEN'S HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Like many Western countries, Australia is seeing a growth in older people in the population. Governments are planning for a further increase in older populations into the future as we live longer. Policy initiatives are and will continue to be looking to develop strategies to maintain healthy, active and productive citizens as they age. Educationalists have also been paying attention to the growing number of older people who either access adult
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education programmes or who are isolated and disconnected from their communities and would benefit from connecting through educational opportunities and programmes. There is growing evidence that lifelong learning and informal learning opportunities impact in a positive way on self-esteem, self-confidence, life choices and resilience. The quality and satisfaction for adults who participate in learning that engages them as non-threatening, and in the case of older men, is constructed in such a way that maintains their sense of masculine identity, is important for health and wellbeing.
The circumstances where older men not in paid work benefit from connecting with a work-like community space that is enabling and develops their capabilities for life benefits not only the men themselves but the broader community. For this particular group of men, the notion of work enables them to "meet the social norms of masculine attitudes and behaviours" (Gradman, 1994, p. 105). The men's shed movement is an enabler of these characteristics through its capacity to provide a work-like environment for men from similar working backgrounds or with similar interests to engage through a socially supportive environment that develops their independence and autonomy. The Shed has been identified as a space where these enabling characteristics, previously connected to the workplace, can be created and experienced by men. Certainly men's sheds have been identified as a site where positive, engaging and meaningful activities can occur (Ormsby, Stanley and Jaworski, 2010).
There is a growing argument (Golding et al., 2007; Ballinger, Talbot and Verrinder, 2009; Foley, Golding and Brown, 2008; Ormsby et al., 2010) to support the benefits that Sheds offer for particular groups of men. Sheds can provide a space that fosters social relationships that are meaningful for men's masculinity and male identity. For these men a community gendered space provides the environment to develop their individual resources. Nussbaum describes these resources as a human-right "to develop a certain level of achieved wellbeing and the right to certain opportunities and capacities with which one may, in turn, make choices regarding one's life plan" (Nussbaum, 1997, p. 74). There is little doubt that through men's sheds, particular groups of men, especially those men not in paid work, can gain opportunities and capabilities to enable better life choices. These spaces are the enablers of agency for men through their masculinised and tailored approaches that afford men the opportunity to practice and experience masculine attitudes and masculine norms.
CONCLUSION
This paper has put forward the case that in certain circumstances there is room and significant benefit for the existence and support for gendered, masculine, community spaces for men. The argument being presented supports the notion that men's sheds or (some) men's gendered spaces have the capacity to provide an informal learning environment where men can let down their (hegemonic) guard, feel safe to expose some of their fragility/ vulnerabilities without feeling judged, exposed or vulnerable. This paper goes some way
Annette Foley: Masculine gendered space 37
to argue a case that the men's shed movement through its diverse and accommodating spaces enables men to gather the resources through work-like activities, friendship and support to develop important health-giving capabilities.
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Ballinger, M., Talbot, L. and Verrinder G. (2009). More than a place to do woodwork: A case study of a community-based men's shed. Journal of Men's Health, 6 (1), 20-27.
Beckett, D. and Helme, S. (2001). Engaging Older Learners, Older Learners Project Final Report. Parkville: University of Melbourne.
Clark, D. (2007). The Capability Approach: Its Development, Critiques and Recent Advances. Oxford University and Manchester University: Global Poverty Research Group.
Connell, R. (1995). Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Courtenay, B. and Truluck, J. (1997). The meaning of life and older learners: Addressing the fundamental issue through critical thinking and teaching. Educational Gerontology, 23 (2), 175-195.
Courtenay, W. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine, 50, 1385-1401.
Field, J. (2009). Good for the soul? Adult learning and mental well-being. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 28(2), 1-31.
Flood, M. (2003). Men's collective struggles for gender justice: The case of anti-violence activism. In M. Kimmel, J. Hearn and R. Connell (Eds.), The Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities (pp. 458-466). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Foley, A. (2005). Searching for the C in ACE. Paper to AVETRA Conference, Brisbane, 13-15 April.
Foley, A. (2007). ACE working within/outside VET. Paper to AVETRA Conference, Melbourne, 11-13 April.
Foley, A. (2014). The Case for Some Men's Spaces. In B. Golding, R. Marks and A. Foley (Eds.), Men Learning Through Life (pp. 63-76). Leicester: NIACE.
Foley, A., Golding B. and Brown, M. (2008). Let the men speak: Health, friendship, community and shed therapy. Paper to AVETRA Conference, Adelaide, 3-4 April.
Fraser, M. (2002). What is the matter of feminist criticism? Economy and Society, 31, 606-625.
Golding, B. (Ed.) (2015). The Men's Shed Movement: The Company of Men. Illinois: Common Ground Pub.
Golding, B., Brown, M., Foley, A., Harvey, J. and Gleeson, L. (2007). Men's Sheds in Australia: Learning Through Community Contexts. Adelaide: NCVER.
Golding, B., Foley A. and Brown, M. (2008). Shedding school early: Insights from school and community shed collaboration in Australia. Paper to AVETRA Conference, Adelaide, 3-4 April.
Golding, B., Kimberley, H., Foley, A. and Brown, M. (2008). Houses and sheds: An exploration of the genesis and growth of neighborhood houses and men's sheds in community settings. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 48(2), 237-262.
Golding, B., Marks, R. and Foley, A. (Eds.) (2014). Men Learning Through Life. Leicester: NIACE.
Gradman, T. (1994). Masculine identity from work to retirement. In E. Thompson (Ed.), Older Men's Lives (pp. 104-121). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Lattimore, R. (2007). Men Not in Work: An Analysis of Men Outside the Labour Force, Staff Working Paper. Canberra: Australian Government Productivity Commission.
Lewis, L. (2012). The capabilities approach, adult and community learning and mental health, Community Development, 47(4), 522-537.
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Mackenzie, C., Robertson, S. and Nurmi, M. (2017). Counter and Complicit Masculine Discourse Among Men's Shed Members. American Journal of Men's Health, 11(4), 1224-1236.
McGivney, V. (2006). Adult Learning at a Glance. Leicester: NIACE.
Messner, M. (1997). Politics of Masculinity: Men in Movements. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Monaghan, L. F. and Robertson, S. (2012). Embodies Heterosexual Masculinities, part 1: Confluent intimacies, emotions and health. Sociology Compass, (6), 134-150.
Nussbaum, M. (1988). Nature, Function and Capability: Aristotle on Political Distribution. London: Zen Books.
Nussbaum, M. (1997). Capabilities and human rights. Fordham Law Review, 66(2), 273-300.
Nussbaum. M. (2000). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2003). Capabilities and fundamental entitlement: Sen and social justice. Feminist Economics, 9(2/3), 33-59.
Ormsby, J., Stanley, M. and Jaworski, K. (2010). Older men's participation in community-based men's sheds programmes. Health and Social Care in the Community, 18(6), 607-613.
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Sen, A. (1997). Editorial: Human capital and human capability. World Development, 25(12), 1959-61.
Sen, A. (2010). The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin Books.
Verdonk, P., Seesing, H. and de Rijk, A. (2010). Doing masculinity, not doing health? A qualitative study among Dutch male employees about health beliefs and workplace physical activity. BMC Public health, Vol. 10. Retrieved from https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/ articles/10.1186/1471-2458-10-712.
Williams, B. (1987). The standard of living: Interests and capabilities. In G. Hawthorn (Ed.), The Standard of Living (pp. 94-102). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, N. and Cordier, R. (2013). A Narrative Review of Men's Shed Literature: Reducing Social Isolation and Promoting Men's Health and Wellbeing. Health and Social Care in the Community, 21(5), 451-464.
Woodin, T. and Burke, P. (2007). Men accessing education: Masculinities, class and choice. The Australian Educational Researcher, 34(3), 119-134.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 39-55 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.339-55
UDK: 141.72 Znanstveni prispevek
Renata Sribar
"IT'S NOT ADEQUATE, BUT OTHERWISE THEY WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND IT": THE GENDER TAXONOMY REVISITED
ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the epistemic change in understanding the 'sex'/gender dichotomy and its decon-struction; conceptual developments have not been adequately implemented in the basic categorical gender apparatus and its usage promoted by the European Commission's studies and the integrated linguistic tools. The basic terms, sex and gender, are used interchangeably; even definitions where new concepts are introduced contradict each other. Mainstream gender policies have been slow in integrating new knowledge, although there is a trend to introduce a new gender category into the administration framework of EU states. The study aims at constituting the epistemic platform and a renewed gender related categorical apparatus to be used in the education sector. It resolves the inconsistencies present in various gender-focused studies by introducing the lowest common linguistic denominators supported by practical usage, EU political trends, and the contemporary epistemology of knowledge.
Keywords: 'sex'/gender, epistemic turn, terminological inconsistencies, corporeality, linguistic democratization
»NI USTREZNO, TODA DRUGAČE NE BI RAZUMELE«: PONOVNI VPOGLED V TAKSONOMIJO SPOLOV - POVZETEK
Prispevek obravnava spoznavni obrat v razumevanju dihotomije »biološki«/družbeni spol in izvedbi njegove dekonstrukcije; konceptualne nadgradnje v osnovnem kategoričnem aparatu, navezujočem se na spole in rabo terminov, se ne izvajajo ustrezno. Problematično je, da se nekonsistentnosti pojavljajo v študijah in jezikovnem orodju, ki jih podpira Evropska komisija. Predhodno navedena osnovna izraza se v sintagmah uporabljata izmenično in poljubno; ob uvajanju sodobnih konceptov si nasprotujejo celo definicije v istem besednjaku. Vladajoče politike spolov so počasne pri vključevanju novih znanj, čeprav je v EU opazen trend uvajanja nove spolne kategorije v okviru upravljanja držav. Pričujoča študija je namenjena oblikovanju spoznavne platforme in prenovi kategoričnega aparata, ki bi se lahko uporabljal v izobraževalnem sektorju. Nedoslednosti različnih študij o spolih preči z uvedbo najmanjših skupnih jezikovnih imenovalcev. Te potrjujejo življenjske prakse, politični trend v EU in sodobna epistemologija vednosti.
Ključne besede: »biološki«/družbeni spol, epistemski preobrat, terminološka neskladja, telesnost, lingvistična demokratizacija
Renata Šribar, PhD., Centre FemA - Institute of transformative studies, renata.sribar@guest.arnes.si
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EXPOSITION
The basic hypothesis accompanying the spectrum of gender related categories presented here is consistent with Simone de Beauvoir's ambivalence towards gendered corporeality and social gender roles and statuses. Are their bodies, the actual physiological and anatomic phenomena, the fundamental reason for the discrimination of women? Or have gender-biased interpretations of bodily characteristics induced discrimination and exclusion? It may be noticed that the very term 'gendered' (in the Slovene language, ospoljeno), attached to corporeality ('gendered corporeality'), provides the answer. It rewrites Simone de Beauvoir's (2000) famous statement that a woman is not born, that she is construed. 'Sexe' is included in the original title of her transformative work, Le deuxième sexe, which implies that women, according to her arguments, are not biologically determined but socially construed by discourses. Being alive and working on her book nowadays, Simone de Beauvoir would have entitled the book Le deuxième genre, taking into account the conceptualization of the categorical pair sex/gender in the period from the early till the mid-1970s (Oakley, 1992; Rubin, 1995).
From the 1980s the concepts of sex/gender were theoretically revisited during the major epistemological development of feminist thought (Butler, 1990; Haraway, 1991). If 'sex' is related to the body and 'gender' to the social realm, there is always the possibility of making this relationship causal. In that case, women's bodies would already predestinate women's lives: discursively, the universalized woman's body is often used as an argument to justify gender discrimination. When the two concepts are no longer closely associated with the nature/culture divide, this deconstruction leads us to think beyond a discursive body, i.e. embodied genders as social construction. Gender norms, prescriptions, social myths, and cultural idioms are revealed as agents on the corporeal level; discourse is active in a body; according to our knowledge, it is transformed into bodily discourse, into a discourse of the body itself (Šribar, 2004).1
Following this major epistemic shift in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary women's and gender studies and feminist theory, the question becomes: which discourses related to gendered bodies are liberating, and which gender myths, phrases, and argumentations are oppressive? To conclude these introductory thoughts, the hypothesis proffered is this: what is invested in discriminatory and exclusion practices on the basis of gender is interpretations. The core of interpretations are concepts, i.e. sex/gender (biološki/družbeni spol), women/men, female, male, queer, transgender/transsexual - and their specific usages.
1 On Menstruation: The Body in Discourse, Discourse in the Body [the original title of the book in Slovene is O menstruaciji: telo v diskurzu, diskurz v telesu] (Šribar, 2004) is the study of the anthropology and sociology of menstruation. Among several results revealing gendered biased (negative) interpretations of reproductive women's bodies, the most important one was the thesis that discourses on menstruation affected menstrual health. Prostaglandins, physiologically produced chemicals, cause contracts of the uterus. The excessive production of prostaglandins often has no physiological cause, and the anthropological and sociological research relate menstrual taboos, prohibitions, and the stigmatization of menstruation (even in its subtler forms, e.g. in ads) as a discursive issue in the menstrual malfunctioning of the body.
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In the discussion that follows, the gender taxonomies of European Union institutions are presented and analyzed using semiotic and critical discourse analysis tools, enlivened with some auto-ethnographic input. Further on, some epistemic insights and practical linguistic suggestions are presented with the aim of finding a common platform for a possible consensual gender categorization, at least in certain benevolent research and pedagogic environments. Some accompanying education practices are suggested, having in mind a gender-aware perspective in pedagogical and other information-disseminating activities in adult education.
TERMINOLOGICAL AND CONCEPTUAL GENDER/SEX AMBIVALENCES IN OFFICIAL KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION IN THE EU
Part of the EC's (European Commission's) research and innovation initiatives, the 7th Framework Programme included the area of gender. One of the successful projects of the so called Capacities programme was titled "Gender in research as a mark of excellence", and it was carried out by the Belgian-French enterprise Yellow Window. Policy design is promoted as one of the services, and the project has actually been applicative in character as regards gender knowledge and awareness of gender dimensions in research and related sectors' services, e.g. health. Among the EU-wide workshops, the Slovenian one was dedicated to the basic knowledge of the gender perspective, and it was carried out at the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science, and Technology (now the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport). Unaware of the level of presentation, some members of the Commission for Women in Science took part, mostly researchers and lecturers in the SSH (social sciences and humanities) field, with either good or excellent expertise in gender studies and feminist theory. The other half of the participants was from the STEM (natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, and interested in the gender perspective in research as well. The lecturer and moderator of the workshop explained the difference between the two concepts, sex and gender, in their uncritical and outlived modus. She was asked if it had been adequate to ignore the feminist criticism of the ideologically biased biological interpretations of gendered corporeality, mainstreamed as the concept 'sex'. The Yellow Window representative claimed that the participants of the workshop educated and employed in STEM wouldn't be able to understand the deconstruction of the sex/gender divide from the contemporary perspective, critical of the biology and its biased gender interpretations.2 Her statement was impolite, probably out of embarrassment because she had been openly criticized. Some colleagues, probably also including chemistry researchers, heard the humiliating answer to the provoking critical question, which had been put forward by my colleague from the Commission for Women in Science, and myself. Thus the construction of the sex/gender divide was once again confirmed and ready to be reproduced as part of the ignorance phenomena, classified as "we do not want them to know, because we don't want to complicate our lives" (comp. Tuana, 2006). The interpretation of the discussed divide can still be found on the Yellow Window home page.
2 Personal archive (notes on communication taking place during the workshop pause, 16th March 2012).
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Sex refers to the biologically determined characteristics of men and women in terms of reproductive organs and functions based on chromosomal complement and physiology. As such, sex is globally understood as the classification of living things as male or female. Gender refers to the social construction of women and men, of femininity and masculinity, which varies in time and place, and between cultures.
The notion of gender appeared in the seventies and was put forward by feminist theorists who challenged the secondary position of women in society. It departs from the notion of sex to signal that biology or anatomy is not destiny. It is important to distinguish clearly between gender and sex. These terms are often used interchangeably but they are conceptually distinctive. (source 1: Gender in EU founded research, n. d.)
The construction of knowledge on gender(s) and the production of ignorance
There is transparent and often experienced incompatibility between the two fields of knowledge that deal with the socio-cultural production of genders, feminist epistemolo-gy/theory, and sociological gender studies, which draw their reliability mostly from quantitative survey and mixed methods research. The lack of joint disciplinary projects, at least in Slovenia, affects the way gendered discourses are marginalized, or mainstreamed. In-depth epistemological reflections need decades to be implemented in the epistemic framework of empirical research or are perhaps never implemented. But when certain concepts are integrated - in our case, the sex/gender categorical combination - the implications of application are not very clear. The confusion, proven by the existence of certain vague syntagms (explored later in the article), is actually suitable for those of us who argue against the indicated conceptual divide. At the same time, one has to bear in mind that more than forty years ago, it was useful to indicate the socio-cultural and political technologies of gender by inventing 'gender', to promote the sex/gender divide, and to explain the recognizable ways we become women and men.
To discuss the vague use of the terms sex/gender, four publications from an EC's gender-related personal collection (regularly acquired in the years from 2010 until today) have been selected and indicated here as sources: a tool-kit (source 1), two policy-implementing studies (sources 2 and 3), and the EC-supported gender glossary (source 4). The aim of the analysis is to reveal the discursive matrix implied in the sex/gender dichotomy ambivalences that reveal themselves. Both disciplinary fields, SSH and life sciences, produce gender-related knowledge - and ignorance - primarily by way of (mis)understand-ing 'sex' (biološki spol), sex-related corporeal categories, and their relation to gender.
Let us continue with the strangest syntagm encountered in the study of the four sources (source 2: Structural change in research institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation, 2012), "sex discrimination" (p. 8). Although it is known that the inquiry into discrimination prevailingly defines 'gender' (not sex) as
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one of its bases, the term 'sex' is used here. It is difficult to imagine how 'sex' seems the proper categorical solution, as discrimination is one of the social acts construing 'gender'. Discrimination and gender are co-constitutive. Checking the Yellow Window definition of the term sex again, the use of the word in the syntagm 'sex discrimination' has a symbolic impact, which is itself discriminatory. Women and girls, indicated by the term 'sex', are hereby presented as biologically destined corporeal identities. According to the Yellow Window definition of the word 'sex', they are symbolically and in imagination enclosed in or are at least close to the common kingdom of living females regardless of the species (source 1: Gender in EU founded research, 2012). Because of the popular mytheme that "males ruling over females is natural", gender-based violence is or may be perceived as natural. The socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions of gender hierarchy, discrimination and exclusion are not sufficiently thematised in public. The cultural fantasies of 'alpha males' and 'weak submissive females' are perpetuated, and the only power acknowledged is physical and instinctive. Consequentially, critique of discrimination could be regarded as an unreasonable intervention in the 'true', 'essential' nature of the two 'sexes'.3
In the Slovenian lexicon, we are fortunate that the word spol can be used in both senses, that of corporeality, and that of social constructivism. The Slovenian term samica (indicating female, and clearly defining with the very term her/its role in the reproductive mechanism) can be used only for animals. Critically examining source 2, the EC publication Structural change in research institutions (2012) further, a typically vague and freely interchangeable use of sex/gender could be found in terms such as: "sex/gender variable", "sex-disaggregated data"; "women researchers", "female scientists"; "gender disaggregated data", "sex/gender results and methods" (p. 13, 27, 37, 38, 39 in the respective order). Gathered from these examples is proof that there is no unambiguous epistemic tool available to distinguish the two categories as regards their integration in these phrases. As all the enumerated word groupings are contextualized by the inquiry into the statuses, roles, and opportunities of women in research, it is contradictory to the aim of the research to position and reduce the respondents to 'the females', because they are already construed as 'the social other', the ones who are dominated, and are of lesser societal importance. 'Sex' in such context might have been the proper term decades ago. 'Sex', like in de Beauvoir's Second Sex, was the only available term to refer to the social groups of women and men.
Another publication produced by the EC and published recently (source 3: Report on equality between women and men in the EU, 2018) already uses the word 'female' in the
3 Twenty-two years ago, I was invited to present a lecture on gender at a regular meeting of the Ljubljana AA, an alcoholics anonymous group lead by a well-known medical doctor. While talking about sexual harassment and gendered socio-cultural relations supporting the victimization of the victim, one of the men commented that it was normal for men to commit sexual offence acts, even rape, if it happened to be springtime. His argument was that this is what animals do. While his attitude was at the far end of the sexual violence ideological spectrum, the matrix is the naturalisation and normalisation of violent and offensive acts against women's integrity - the other end of the spectrum being the seemingly flattering side of sexual harassment (Personal communication during the workshop at the AA meeting, Ljubljana Clinical Centre, 1996).
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contents section, in the function of an adjective: "female labour market". The connotation is ascribing gendered characteristics to the market of jobs offered to women, occupied by women, declined to them - and besides, the main reference is the perpetuation of the gender-specific structuring of employment and work conditions. It is again obvious that the implied generalization is based on the socio-cultural and political construction of the women and work relation. The inadequate choice of term is accompanied by a misleading, yet seemingly self-evident interpretation. The dominant idea, accepted by the moral majority, is the naturalization and normalization of women's employment conditions and career opportunities. It is related to supposedly universal corporeal characteristics, which at the lowest common denominator comprise the visual impression of being a woman. It's not only about employment and work practices related to women's corporeality (sex-appeal, reproductive phenomena, claims regarding image at work). There is also the widely used and not problematised concept, one which pejoratively naturalises poor working conditions in employment sectors that are prevailingly occupied by women: 'feminization'. The elements that make up the 'female labour market' are well-known: unequal payment, women as the major social group among the unemployed, gendered professional segmentation, women slavery, the glass-ceiling and the snowball effect as part of the hindrances to career development, discriminatory and even illegal claims regarding image, ageism, expected 'feminine' behaviour and even women's 'culture'4, informal social duties, sexual harassment from superiors and co-workers, and so on. The word 'female' is here not only a symptom of the discriminatory conditioning of the labour market, it is part of the syndrome comprised of the humiliating and oppressing situations and discourses women are exposed to at work, yet not in general terms and not all of them by default, since gender may also function as the untypical positioning of a person, e.g. the traditional female positioning may be occupied by a man or vice versa. The enumerated characteristics describe the work conditions and disadvantages that are systemically and structurally (institutionally) possible and likely to occur mostly to women, which means not only to women, and not to all of them. As can be seen in the following lines, the comparable phrase to the 'female labour market' is the wording 'employment opportunities for women', where according to the same logic, 'female employment opportunities' could be also used but is not, as there would be some hidden logic in relating the words 'female labour'/'women's employment'. The syntagm 'female employment in transport' is found here. The inexact or vague, and inconsistent usage of gender/sex terms and the related categories (female, male, man, woman) has been amply proven. As regards the plausible meanings arising from conscious or unconscious androcentric intentions to dominate, some further analysis has been done.
Further discussion on the ideological matrix of the terminological ambivalences emerges rather spontaneously. Obtaining the indicative wording by checking more than half of
4 The claim for sustaining 'women's culture' was articulated by one of the men members of the Slovenian Commission for Women in Science during the 2010 - 2014 mandate (Personal archive, Communication at one of the commission meetings in 2011).
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source 3, The report on equality between women and men in the EU (2018), publication pages (p. 8, 35, 36, 37, 42, 44, 46, 47, 48), the phrases are arranged below with the aim of testing the hypothetical inscription of biased gender structuring in the use of 'sex' or 'gender'. Two groups are formed, (A) comprising of phrases with sex/female/male categories, and (B) with the term 'gender' in the syntagms.
Group A: female labour market / female chair / female networks / female trafficking victims / female politicians / female victims of sexual violence / male offenders / female employment in transport.
Group B: gender pay gap / women employment rate / cyber violence against women and girls / women human rights defenders / gender-based violence / women's access to justice / gender perspective / physical and psychological integrity of women / refugee women / women's political participation / employment opportunities for women / disadvantage of women / women in transport.
The term 'female' is as a rule used only as an adjective, never as a noun. It appears much less frequently than the term 'women', posited as a single or compound noun, where it has the function of a gender marker. In three out of eight cases, it characterizes the domain or structure ('labour market', 'employment in transport', 'networks'). 'Female' is used twice in the traditionally atypical pairing with a high career rank and a seemingly privileged men's profession (a chair, politicians). The phrase 'woman chair' and 'women politicians' would render this rank and profession more appropriate on the imaginative level, as the word 'female' associates the position and job with less serious occupational engagement. Twice it is linked to traditionally heavily subjected women's roles ('trafficking victims', 'victims of sexual violence'). Those two examples are in textual and symbolic proximity with 'male' dominance ('offenders'). When the words 'female'/'male' are used in such discursive constellations in a universalized crime setting - women victims/men offenders -, it naturalizes and normalizes the relation; if 'gender' is used, the implication is different, indicating gendered criminal realities, without automatically reproducing the ideology inscribed in the adjectives 'female'/'male'. To make an inference, the whole picture reflects traditional gender role modelling: with the adjective 'female', the structures and positions are implicitly characterized by traditionally biased gendering or, when the position or structure is traditionally associated with men, the link to 'female-ness' renders it less attractive, not as serious as it should be, or unlikely to be adopted by women in numbers.
'Gender' and 'women' are mostly integrated in the syntagms which sound or are read in accordance with a contemporary gendered human condition: always when women are addressed as members of a certain societal group, or when they are participants/respondents in research. Other uses are related to technology, and human/women's rights discourse.
Beside inexact and incoherent intertwining of 'sex' and 'gender' terms, and the nouns in the syntagms, the socio-cultural contextualization proves the obsolete character of the notion of 'sex' in the discussed strategic, research and education frameworks. Later in the
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study, 'sex' is going to be analysed in different social and epistemic contexts with the aim to examine the possibility of its (direct) relation to corporeality itself, uncontaminated by socio-cultural and strategic or ideological investments. For the moment, in discussing the terminological side of contemporary gender-knowledge relations, 'sexed' bodies are perceived discursively - they are considered social bodies, hologram entities in the realm of the symbolic.
An auto-ethnographic starting point to the discussion on corporeality
The only body that is substantive here is the author's, but it is restricted as well by the images, habits, and convictions of itself. As such it cannot be freed from being imaginarily and symbolically embedded in various hologram-like locations of intersected perspectives; it never appears in isolation as a 'sexed' body alone.
'Ain't I a woman' is part of the title5 of a famous book by bell hooks (1982). It is used as a political rhetorical question, with the body as the constructed platform of social relations. It is never devoid of them, there is no way for it to escape socialisation, which begins in the uterus, in the moment when the ultrasound reveals whether "it's a girl" or "it's a boy". There is no body which is not subjected to norms and hidden or transparent prescriptions. Although bell hooks thematizes and critically analyses 'race' and ethnicity relations, the body and the embodied experiences are never those of the 'females', human beings with the 'female' sex essence, which would make them embodied totalities. Critical thinking on this originates in women's groups, which were socio-culturally and politically marginalized in complex ways on the basis of REI - ideas and practices of 'race', ethnicity, imperialism, class, and gender. Because of the supremacy of middle-class white women in the globalized feminist movements and theories of that time, 'sex' (as a category still used in the 1970s) comes in as a challenged concept, challenged mostly and primarily by 'race' and class.
Theories, ideas, ideologies, and ordinary phrases discursively construct our realities, yet they are never out of the body; it cannot be said that words and other carriers of meaning are destined to have their dead end somewhere where flesh, veins, neurons, molecules, genes, and hormones come in. On the other hand, words have their final destination - just like live bodies, i.e. bodies that we can touch and feel in a way we have been taught to. The fulfilment of the verbal - the symbolic, and the imaginary deeds is in their impact not only on bodies, but in them. In the presented reflexive context, I have found - as a feminist anthropologist of everyday life - what the ultimate message of the Yellow Window workshop lecturer received by the women in STEM disciplines was. They took in her explanation of the sex/gender schism word for word, although it was declared obsolete by us, women humanists, and they could not do otherwise, because contemporary
5 As stated by Momin Rahman and Stevi Jackson (2010), this is a citation, a refrain from a famous speech that Sojourner Truth, a former slave, gave in Ohio in 1852. She made the category of sex unstable by presenting her body as one that was as able as a man's body and receiving none of the social comforts that white middle class women did.
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gender knowledge was denied to them. Instead of an explanation of the reason behind such definitions, they experienced humiliation. The sentence "It's not adequate [to base a gender lecture on the conceptualization of the sex/gender schism], but they would not understand it otherwise" was communicated to women intellectuals, and the message affected more than their mind - in the accompanying emotional response their bodies were hurt as well. In this mental, emotional and somatic intertwining, were I in their shoes, I would read the sentence as "you are embodied impossibility of becoming a subject of the elaborated knowledge". Let me connect the relation of words, meaning and body on the broader socio-political level. The described ideas inherent in the indicated vague or false and misleading syntagms using the term 'female' are not innocent agents of our realities. For example, let us take education as one of the characteristically 'female' employment sectors. 'Female', like 'feminization', in words and practices discursively structures jobs sectors in a way that make them less desirable for men - with the exception of high-ranking positions. 'Female' and 'feminized' mean degraded via the traditional gender myths of the 'natural' gender order. Not that we could do much by using the terms 'gender' and 'women' in all the previously analysed syntagms instead of 'sex' and 'female', but there is a denotative implication which associate the term 'gender' with at least a bit of dignity, a possibility of change for the better.
Is it possible to avoid the vague gender terminology in the EC gender policies framework?6
Personally experiencing the governmentality in the EC domain, it would be fair not to blame the Yellow Window lecturer for unintentionally humiliating the participants who work in STEM during the Ljubljana gender in research workshop. The project "Gender perspective in research" followed the EC guidelines on the sex/gender conceptualization (see an adaptation of the EC source by Kozmik and Mrak Thorne, 1998). The ignorance of more evolved gender knowledge, developing at the time when the guidelines were published, was produced on a higher level. To stick to the facts, Yellow Window went a step further from the EC official sex/gender concepts, wherein the term 'sex' was interpreted as biological characteristics which divide human beings according to dimorphism, and 'gender' was interpreted in causal relation to sex (literally, "social manifestation of sex", glossary entry "gender", ibid). At least the inherent connection between 'sex' and 'gender' has been abandoned (see the previously cited Yellow Window definitions). The new proposal of the Europe-wide gender thesaurus and glossary was elaborated in 2015 (Neubauer and Sribar, 2015), and was revised and published by the end of 2016 or at the beginning of 2017 (source 4, Gender Equality Glossary and Thesaurus). Because the lead person of our expert team has been integrated into UN and EU structures, and the commissioner was the EC institution EIGE, it was impossible to avoid the traditionalism and rigidity in defining the entry 'sex' - and to introduce contemporary explanations of the
6 The answer to the question asked in the subtitle, for the time being, is no. This is only logical considering the categorical and conceptual inconsistencies which are continually reproduced by slight changes because of the introduction of the new concepts.
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sex/gender categories implemented in feminist epistemology and gender studies, the first in the 1980s, and then the 1990s. Having no control over the final version of the glossary (and being responsible only for the proposal of a Europe-wide gender thesaurus), I was unable to prevent the contradiction between the definition of 'sex', and the introduction and definition of 'intersex'. "Sex" is still understood in terms of corporeal dimorphism, but "intersex" introduces factual corporeal ambiguities as regards reproductive anatomy and physiology (Gender Equality Glossary and Thesaurus, entries "sex" and "intersex"):
Sex: Biological and physiological characteristics that define humans as female or male.
Intersex: Umbrella term to denote a number of different variations in a person's bodily characteristics that do not match strict medical definitions of male and female.
Similarly, the definition under the entry "gender" does not correspond to other entries of related definitions which transgress the gender dichotomy (Gender Equality Glossary and Thesaurus, entries "gender", "queer", "third gender", "transgender", and "transsexual"):
Gender: Social attributes and opportunities associated with being female and male and to the relationship between women and men and girls and boys, as well as to the relations between women and those between men.
Queer: All individuals who fall outside the gender and sexuality 'norms'.
Third gender [no definition but included as additional notes and information]: Queer theory and civil movements - focused on alternative gender or transgen-der/transsexual identity, traditional praxes and knowledge of the 'third' gender - together initiated a new administrative and statistical category, beyond the binary opposition of woman/man (or female/male). It has been introduced in New Zealand and Germany (as 'indeterminate/unspecified' gender), and in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan either as the gender category of 'other', or 'third gender'.
Transgender: Person who has a gender identity different to the gender assigned at birth and who wishes to portray identity in a different way to the gender assigned at birth.
Transsexual: Person who prefers another gender than the birth gender and feels the need to undergo physical alterations to the body to express this feeling, such as hormone treatment and/or surgery.
Contemplating the inconsistencies inherent in the very definitions, and in comparing them, these cannot be treated as coincidences: the 'sex' and 'gender' definitions are in accordance with the UN ones, which can be checked in the entries' sources. The implied
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mental rigidity is related to duality ideologies, which renders the world in a comfortable interpretative framework, characteristic for the so called Western religious and intellectual tradition. 'Sex' is framed in the dimorphism of male/female, 'gender' in the dichotomy man/woman.7 In the EIGE glossary, the close relation between 'sex' and 'gender' is sustained, although it is not as strong or directly causal as in the definition of 'gender' in the previous glossary formally confirmed at the highest administrative level of the EU (adapted for Slovenia by Kozmik and Mrak Thorne, 1998). According to the definition of 'gender', bodies are not gendered by biology and medicine as we claim they are; gender is supposed to be something secondary to the 'sexed' corporeality; it is described like a kind of socio-cultural dress for women and men. All research of bodies being 'sexed' in a gender biased way by biology and medicine is ignored. To adopt the relatively novel 'sex' and 'gender' dichotomy interpretation, multi-level argumentation against gender biased science must be recognized as the thorough feminist epistemological input (see also Mak-simovic, Ostrouch Kamiúska, Popovic in Bulajic, 2016, pp. 9-10). Specific features of the wished for acknowledgment of gender blind or biased life sciences should be: the lack of any sex indicator which is not exposed to corruption in the course of the development of human beings - or which is not falsely presented in dominant scientific and popularized discourses on the two 'sexes': gonads, hormones, chromosomes, physiology, anatomy are flexible and not unambiguously sex specific; the absence of interdependency between morphology and function; the impact of discourse on corporealities; the false or misleading animal sex metaphors; large cross-sections of the features of women's and men's bodies. This is actually the shortest possible basic summary of biologist and feminist Ann Fausto-Sterling's reference book on sex and gender in society (2012).
Another ideological connotation beside the obsolete character of the definitions under the entries on 'sex' and 'gender' which is hard to ignore, is the lax attitude towards gender-based discrimination - as though this was not inscribed in traditional gender construing. "Attributes" and "opportunities" are the only mentioned societal (and cultural, political) dimensions of the two genders in the cited definitions. The cited EIGE definitions of 'queer', 'third gender', and even 'transgender' and 'transsexual' persons are all related to gender identity categories, which oppose the EIGE gender definition. Although different sources define 'transgender' and 'transsexuality' in diversified ways, the stress here is not on these discrepancies. But there is another inconsistency of interest to be considered once more: the already well-known vagueness and inconsistency in the usage of the terms 'sex' and 'gender' are also detected in a number of phrases. In order to compare the 'sex' and 'gender' syntagms, most of the EIGE glossary phrases with these two terms are cited below:
7 The philological insight itself, without any feminist epistemological, sociological, anthropological and gender studies knowledge, reveals the imbalance inscribed in the word pairings: female is 'the other' of male, woman 'the other' of man. There is no symbolic topos explicating equality, because the prefixes to the root words 'male' and 'man' make the 'female' nouns function symbolically as a Biblical rib of Adam - a little something attached or belonging to males/men is what designs females/women.
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sex and gender based discrimination, sex bias in data collection, sex-disaggregated data, sex-disaggregated statistics, sex-role stereotypes, sex stereotypes, sex trafficking, sexual division of labour; gender analysis, gender balanced participation, gender based bullying, gender based discrimination, gender based division of labour, gender based violence, gender discrimination, gender division of labour, gender identity, gender pay gap, gender quota, gender reassignment, gender roles, gender segregation, gender statistics, gender violence [...] (Gender Equality Glossary and Thesaurus).
Some phrases use the terms 'sex' and 'gender' interchangeably, without exact and conclusive logic: "sex-role stereotypes", "gender roles", "sex bias in data collection", "sex-disaggregated data", "sex-disaggregated statistics", "gender statistics", "sexual division of labour", "gender division of labour".
Other phrases are difficult to understand for various reasons: "sex and gender-based discrimination", "gender discrimination" - they lack persuasiveness, first, of distinguishing between sex discrimination and gender discrimination, and second, of using both combinations once in a pair of phrases, and once in a separate phrase. Another ambiguity arises from the uncertain meanings of the terms 'sex' and 'sexual' in English: why the need for "sexual division of labour" if there is a more appropriate 'gender' phrase? In the case of medical transformation, "sex reassignment" may be appropriate, but "gender identity" might be misleading because it refers to gender self-identification; anyway, in state administrative practices, we are used to identifications as regards sex and gender markers assigned at birth. In administrative language both terms are interchangeable.
Auto-ethnographic note. The critical analysis of the EIGE glossary is meant to be constructive, aimed at future improvements, the possibility of which is suggested on the web page as well. I was as the co-author of the proposal of the glossary in question, and as such responsible, too. I tried hard to introduce the notions of 'queer', 'transgender' and 'intersex', which was not easy, but successful at the end of the day. After that, I had no real structural power to promote and help implement new definitions of sex and gender in accordance with contemporary feminist epistemology and gender studies theory. It became clear to me only later on that huge conceptual inconsistencies were caused by the strategy of "something old and something new". Besides, I share responsibility for the vague 'sex' and 'gender' phrases. I worked with others on the first glossary proposal and probably overlooked certain inexact solutions, being individually responsible only for the thesaurus (Sribar, 2015). The second proposal of the glossary, which was approved by EIGE, was mostly finalised without my participation. The point of this summary of auto-ethnographic remembering, notes, and my personal archive of e-mails, is to draw attention to power hierarchies. Despite the quite adequate participation of EIGE staff, the processing of the task had been characteristic for the contemporary structuring of work: acceleration of time - time pressure, poor resource management in general, not enough
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cooperation with the stakeholders, no true monitoring of the process, not enough expert supervision, and probably also a certain lack of specific knowledge.
What is interesting is the technology of reproducing the described circumstances on the individual level. In spite of one's efforts, there are hindrances to even the best work practices, which according to personal experiences could be defined as: strong institutional hierarchies, shortcomings in staff either in terms of numbers, competences or work ethics norms, ambitions which do not correspond to expected competences, competences which often cannot be obtained because of the time pressure, deadlines which cannot reasonably be argued, the need or greed for public and institutional success, professional status and references, and financial resources.
THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE GENDER TAXONOMY, AND RELATED TERMINOLOGY: THE SLOVENIAN EPISTEMIC AND LEXICAL EXAMPLE
On democratic linguistic solutions
Although the Slovene language is much more flexible and at least partially more democratic in regard to the grammatical and lexical expression of gender, the insensible impact of English grammatical and lexical solutions may be detected in numerous cases of scientific, expert and public discourse. The strangest Slovene language 'innovation' is the use of the noun with the feminine suffix together with the noun 'women' (ženske) placed in front of it. The word 'women' is in the position of the adjective. No such usage as ženske profesorice is correct when indicating 'women professors' or the like. The combination of two nouns becomes even more linguistically problematic when the noun ženske is used with another noun in the masculine grammatical form: ženske profesorji. A further example of nearly unbelievable exploitation of the natural language can be found in the Slovene translation of one of the EC's gender publications (Razlike med spoloma pri izobraževalnih dosežkih: Študija o položaju v Evropi in sprejetih ukrepih, 2010): profesorji ženskega spola, 'professors of female [grammatical] gender' (p. 98).
If linguistic copying went in the opposite direction, from Slovene to the globalized English language, only 'gender', 'gendered' (in Slovene basic categories 'spol', 'spola', 'spoli', 'ospoljen/-a/-o') would be used in nearly all of the terms that have been singled out above. That would be a most welcome solution. The argumentation is complex:
•	Corporeality cannot be directly addressed. Not only the verbal but also every other discourse, praxis included, has symbolic meaning by which we mentally and emotionally grasp the material world. In other words, corporeality is always mediated, meaning that from the theoretical viewpoint it is never sexed, it is always gendered.
•	A body is transformed according to cultural practices and environmental conditions, which are in themselves substantial and influential when it comes to corporeality. More than that, it is transformed by discourses, which are unsubstantial but echo in corporeality anyway. The meanings get embodied, what is societal and cultural is inscribed on the body surface and below it. The bodies are therefore characterized by 'plasticity'.
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•	Biological and medical knowledge are time-place conditioned; these domains are prey to different interests, which are nowadays mostly focused on social status and benefits, and financial capital. The interpretations of bodies are thus gendered in the ways which are not at all transparent. There is no innocently sexed body, all we can get in the domains we work in are the scientifically, expertly gendered bodies.
•	The category and contemporary conceptualization of genders deconstruct corpore-al/'sex' dimorphism, and societal gender dichotomy. There is an observable number of persons who identify themselves as transgender. This is the umbrella category under which all people who are born out of bodily dimorphism or are not willing to identify as women or men are gathered. The new categorical apparatus of genders has been already suggested by A. Finn Enke (2012, p. 244): women, men, transgender (persons). These categories are suitable for epistemic, educational, state administrative, and public/(new) media use.
In the Slovene language medical and other disciplinary references to corporeality are gendered by the nouns and adjectives moški, ženske, moško, žensko (men/men's, women/ women's, man/man's, woman/woman's). In English expressions, 'womanlike', 'womanly' and 'manlike', 'manly' are used in the same textual contexts. By privileging plural forms the inadequate generalization of the gendered bodies is not possible; in the education and health sector this is very important.
In literal translation from Slovene, English 'sex' could exist only when denoting matter related to sexualities (spolnost, seksualnost, seksualno, spolno). With the presented conceptualizations of the terms 'gender' and 'sex', the ambiguities in meanings of 'sex'/'sex-ual' when translating English into Slovene would be avoided.
Some future research-oriented thoughts on genders and bodies
Hypothesis. After decades of gender constructivism in opposition to historical (sex) es-sentialism and biologism bodies are again in focus from a different perspective. Corporeality is legitimate in the strategic gendering of women when some ultimate gender-based discrimination is in question.
Renowned feminist scholar Judith Butler asserts that feminism is passé as the only common denominator of the political subject of the social group of women left is the body in pain; women's suffering bodies are the new constitutive base for feminism (2004) if it is to politically and theoretically survive. In recent years the Slovenian school of feminism and psychoanalysis opened the discussion on a kind of new essentialism, which refuses to be identified as such. Eva D. Bahovec (2011) relates the 'lacking' corporeality (i.e. weak and unrecognized women's presence) to women's impossibility of being (acknowledged) philosophers, subjects of philosophy: "If I am a woman, I cannot be a philosopher." (p. 208) The condition of this negative professional existence is legitimate as long as women are not able to transform the philosophic canon. In accordance with psychoanalysis, this implicitly relates to the masochistic positioning of women, and the deconstructivism of Catherine Malabou (2011).
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Malabou, who was a successful student of Derrida, later diverged into philosophic autonomy, problematising the status of women philosophers. What is important to our discussion is her elaboration of the 'return to the body', which in its argumentation is evidently not essentialist. Women's bodies in philosophy (let's add: and elsewhere in privileged androcentric domains and situations) are marked by the impossibility of achievement, and that emotionally as well as somatically hurts. To make the conclusion: in the new epistemic confirmations of corporeality, its mediated nature is not and cannot be wholly deconstructed. Judith Butler's women's bodies in pain, Eva Bahovec's and Catherine Malabou's women's bodies reflecting impossibility, are made substantial by that very pain. At the same time, women's bodies are construed by society, and the various ways it produces hurtful obstacles to the realization of women's wishes, intentions, talents, etc., and last but not least importantly, life lust and love. Yet according to Malabou (2011), it is possible to start anew from women's 'essence', compounded of aching corporeality, and symbolic societal violence, represented in her work by the disciplinary rigidity and androcentrism of philosophy. With the aim to transgress the symbolic violence inscribed in women's bodies there is "no need to decline concepts" (p. 167), she writes. But we may, as is already well-known, re-conceptualize them. Hopefully we have accomplished some work here by trying to improve the gender-related categorical apparatus in English and Slovene.
CONCLUSION
The applicative value of the suggested improvements to the basic gender glossary in formal and informal education
According to Joanna Ostrouch-Kamiúska and Cristina C. Vieira (2015), there is still a lack of gender perspective and gender related research in adult education, a "worrisome omission considering the fact that one of the principles of the field is to raise awareness of people, foster critical thinking and help combat discrimination." (p. 6) Although genders are still considered here in gender dichotomy ("women and men"/"men and women") there's hope for a more just, genders reflecting world of "open, plural, multicultural, personalized and egalitarian community" (ibid., p. 188). The development starts with education on gender equality (ibid., p. 188). This meta-aim of their study invites us a bit further, concretely to think, feel and act in the novel framework as tertiary education teachers, researchers, educators and active citizens, who have an impact on children and younger people. The platform is revealed:
•	first, by deconstruing the sex/gender divide and implementing a corresponding gender related categorical apparatus, inclusive of 'transgender';
•	second, by trying to cope with the gendered obstacles to human wellbeing without investing in hurtful activities or an internalization of a discriminatory environment; instead of that, the option is mutual support, especially when the wellbeing and self-realizations of women and transwomen are in question.
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There are many trends and currents in gender studies and feminist theory, and often they oppose each other, or are inconsistent in mutual juxtapositioning. The decision about which epistemic conceptual framework is to be placed in a dominant position has to be grounded on solid facts and the new epistemology of knowledge. From that angle the present study refers to a reality check (intersex and trans-persons phenomena), the EU socio-political trend of introducing a new gender category beside man/woman, and the epistemic framework deconstructing the androcentric paradigm of knowledge and its production which has also been confirmed by the so called hard sciences (neuroscience, physics of elementary particles).
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spol (pp. 189-215). Ljubljana: Krtina. Beauvoir, S. de (2000). Drugi spol. Ljubljana: Delta.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge. Butler, J. (2004). Undoing Gender. New York and London: Routledge.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2012). Sex/Gender: Biology in a Social World. New York and London: Routledge. Finn Enke, A. (2012). The Education of Little Cis: Cisgender and the Discipline of Opposing Bodies. In S. Stryker and A. Aizura (Eds.), The Transgender Studies Reader (pp. 234-247). New York and London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283366414_The_edu-cation_of_little_cis_Cisgender_and_the_discipline_of_opposing_bodies. Gender Equality Glossary and Thesaurus. (n. d.). Retrieved from http://eige.europa.eu/rdc/thesaurus. Gender in EU founded research. A tool-kit. (n. d.). Retrieved from https://docs.wixstatic.com/ug-
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Institute for Gender Equality. Oakley, A. (1972). Gender, Sex and Society: Towards a New Society. London: Temple Smith. Ostrouch-Kamiúska, J. and Vieira C. C. (2016). Introduction: Gender and World(s) of Informal Learning; Informal Learning and Gender. In J. Ostrouch-Kamiúska and C. C. Vieira (Eds.), Private World(s): Gender and Informal Learning of Adults (pp. 1-12; 183-190). Rotterdam: Sense. Retrieved from https://www.sensepublishers.com/media/2281-private-worlds.pdf.
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Rachman, M. and Jackson, S. (2010). Gender and Sexuality: Sociological Approaches. Cambridge and Maiden: Polity Press.
Razlike med spoloma pri izobraževalnih dosežkih: Študija o položaju v Evropi in sprejetih ukrepih [Gender Difference in Education Outcomes: Studies on the Measures Taken and the Current Situation in Europe]. (2010). Ljubljana: Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport.
Report on equality between women and men in the EU. (2018). Luxembourg: European Commission. Retrieved from https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail7-/publication/950dce57-6222-11 e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
Rubin, G. (1975). The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex. In E. Lewin (Ed.), Feminist Anthropology: A Reader (pp. 157- 210). Hoboken, New Yersey: Blackwell.
Structural change in research institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation (2012). Brussels: European Commission, Directorate General for Research and Innovation. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/research/swafs/pdf/pub_gender_equality/ structural-changes-final-report_en.pdf.
Šribar, R. (2004). O menstruaciji: telo v diskurzu, diskurz v telesu [On Menstruation: The Body in Discourse, Discourse in the Body]. Ljubljana: Delta.
Šribar, R. (2015). First draft Europe-wide gender equality thesaurus. (Updated and approved version). Vilnius: European Institute for Gender Equality.
Tuana, N. (2006). The Speculum of Ignorance: The Women's Health Movement and Epistemologies of Ignorance. Hypatia 21(3), 1-31. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summa-ry&url=/journals/hypatia/v021/21.3tuana02.html.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 57-72 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.3.57-72
UDK: 37.015.4:141.72 Znanstveni prispevek
Anitra Goriss-Hunter, Adele Echter, Taiwo Oseni, Sally Firmin
'UNDOING' GENDER: HOW THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SEIT) WOMEN'S GROUP WORKS ACROSS UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY LINES TO PROMOTE INCLUSIVE STEMM
ABSTRACT
Research on gender and education in industrialised and developing countries suggests that schools and universities are sites of 'doing' rather than 'undoing' gender. Deutsch (2007) contends that 'doing gender' refers to social interactions that reproduce conventional and limiting notions of gender construction and that 'undoing gender' refers to social interactions that reduce gender difference and open up other possibilities. In this paper we consider how educational institutions can be strategic sites of influence in undoing gender and we investigate some ways that gender is 'undone' through the example of the work of the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women's Group (SEITWG) located in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Federation University Australia. For this purpose, a self-study methodology understood as a professional reflection was used. The paper explores how the informal coalition of SEITWG works as 'wilful subjects', on the one hand, coming up against some of the 'brick walls' of dominant discourse that attempt to limit women's participation in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine). On the other hand, SEITWG attempts to move beyond the restrictions of conventional gender narratives to encourage more women to participate in STEMM by foregrounding the presence of women already active in the area; mentoring women students and staff; supporting a range of their colleagues' endeavours to research and teach for inclusion; embedding gender analysis into the curriculum; and promoting workplace cultural change.
Keywords: gender, STEMM, education, university
Anitra Goriss-Hunter, PhD, Federation University Australia, a.goriss-hunter@federation.edu.au Adele Echter, Ms, Federation University Australia, a.echter@federation.edu.au Taiwo Oseni, PhD, Federation University Australia, t.oseni@federation.edu.au Sally Firmin, Ms, Federation University Australia, s.firmin@federation.edu.au
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»ODPRAVLJANJE« SPOLA: ŽENSKA SKUPINA ŠOLE ZA ZNANOST, STROJNIŠTVO IN INFORMACIJSKE TEHNOLOGIJE TER PROMOCIJA INKLUZIVNEGA STEMMA NA UNIVERZI IN V SKUPNOSTI - POVZETEK
Raziskave na področju spola in izobraževanja v industrializiranih razvitih državah kažejo, da so šole in univerze prizorišča »delovanja«, ne pa »odpravljanja« spola. Deutsch (2007) trdi, da se »delovanje spola« nanaša na socialne interakcije, ki reproducirajo tradicionalne in omejujoče pojme o konstrukciji spola, »odpravljanje spola« pa se nanaša na socialne interakcije, ki zmanjšujejo spolno razliko in omogočajo nove poti. V tem članku razmišljamo, kako lahko izobraževalne institucije postanejo strateška prizorišča vplivanja na »odpravljanje« spola, in raziskujemo nekatere od načinov, kako je lahko spol »odpravljen«, prek primera dela Ženske skupine za znanost, strojništvo in informacijsko tehnologijo (the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women's Group, SEITWG), ki deluje na Fakulteti za znanost in tehnologijo Avstralske zvezne univerze. Uporabljena je bila metodologija samoizobraževanja, razumljena kot strokovna refleksija. Članek raziskuje, kako (ne)formalna koalicija SEITWG na eni strani deluje kot »zavesten subjekt«, ki se sooča z »opečnimi zidovi« dominantnega diskurza, ki želi omejiti žensko sodelovanja na področjih STEMM (torej na področjih znanosti, tehnologije, strojništva, matematike in medicine). Hkrati želi SEITWG prekoračiti konvencionalne omejitve in spodbuditi več žensk, da bi sodelovale na zgoraj omenjenih področjih, in sicer tako, da v ospredje postavlja prisotnost žensk, ki so že aktivne na teh področjih, spodbuja mentorstvo študentk in žensk, zaposlenih na fakulteti, podpira prizadevanja svojih kolegic pri raziskovanju in poučevanju, ki je usmerjeno k vključevanju, z učnimi načrti, ki vsebujejo analize spola, in s promocijo kulturnih sprememb na delovnem mestu.
Ključne besede: spol, STEMM, izobraževanje, univerza
INTRODUCTION
While ensuring equal access to education for all school and university students is an important structural change, research on gender and education in industrialised and developing countries suggests that schools and universities are sites of 'doing' rather than 'undoing' gender (Connell, 1989; Thorne, 1993; Pascoe, 2007; Unterhalter, 1999; Renold 2006; Thoman, White, Yamawaki and Koishi, 2008; Steffens, 2011; Steele, 1997). A number of studies follow the lead of West and Zimmerman (1987), Cheryan, Plaut, Davies and Steele (2009), and Spelke (2005) to argue that universities and schools are sites where academics, teachers, students and textbooks construct meanings of gender that disadvantage female students (Biraimah, 1982; Lloyd, Mensch and Clark, 2000; Cohen and Du-berly, 2017 and Clancy, 2017). Despite some research work in this area, understandings of how education at university and school levels can challenge inequitable social norms and undo restrictive gender relations have advanced slowly. In particular, there is a general understanding of a number of concerns or factors that negatively impact female participation in STEMM subjects and careers, but these issues are generally not being successfully addressed. In this paper we discuss the ways in which a university women's group seeks to work along fault lines of gender and power across faculties in an Australian university to undo traditional gender limitations. The Science Engineering Information Technology Women's Group (SEITWG), located in the Faculty of Science and Technology at
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Federation University Australia, draws on academics from a number of faculties to move towards undoing stereotypical notions of gender and promoting inclusive participation in STEMM activities and studies. SEITWG moves beyond deficit views of the inevitability of notions of female exclusion from masculine networks of power within a STEMM environment in the academy. Instead, the group works to create spaces of belonging for those who are undoing dominant forms of gender.
THE PROBLEM - WOMEN UNDERREPRESENTED IN AND AVOIDING STEMM
"According to the Australian government, women occupy fewer than one in five senior researcher positions in Australian universities, and make up less than half of the overall STEMM workforce" (Sadler, 2017). Women are deterred from studying STEMM or pursuing a career in STEMM for a number of reasons, including stereotyping (Dasgupta and Stout, 2014), lack of family support, lack of access to jobs (Mavriplis et al., 2010), low numbers of girls studying STEMM programmes (Vogt, Hocevar and Hagedorn, 2007), perceptions of content being too difficult (Hill, Corbett and St Rose, 2010), and gender bias in software design (Tavani, 2016). The under-representation of women in STEMM education and workforce impacts on more than women. It is a missed opportunity. Women bring a unique perspective that shapes and influences the STEMM disciplines (Mil-gram, 2011). Women bring variety and different perspectives into the workplace, which leads to diversity of ideas (Cohen, 2014). Women respond to closer relationships and engagement with their teachers (Vogt et al., 2007). Technology can be leveraged to afford closer relationships with our women students, and provide positive experiences (Cohen, 2014). In addition, women are known to be leading adopters in technologies such as social media (Correa, Hinsley and Gil de Zuniga, 2010). Many studies argue that technology is a valuable tool in engaging student learning (Chen, Lambert and Guidry, 2010), and enhancing a student-centred approach (Hannafin and Land, 1997).
WILFUL SUBJECTS UNDOING GENDER
To investigate the complexities of the problems outlined in the previous section, this paper draws on the ideas of Deutsch and Ahmed. Deutsch contends that 'doing gender' refers to social interactions that reproduce gender difference and that 'undoing gender' refers to social interactions that reduce gender difference (2007, p.122). The university is one of a number of crucially important education institutions that influence how individuals learn gendered behaviour. Research on gender and education suggests that there are several pathways or authorities that can reproduce gender inequality in educational environments such as universities (Baker, 2010; Guarino, 2017; Nath, 2017). These issues include the organisational structure of universities and the management practices that constitute it, the formal curriculum (both how knowledge is organised and whether it has explicit gender content), peer group norms, and academics' beliefs, expectations and interactions with students. Strategies proposed to undo gender largely focus on women's
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access to non-traditional career areas; quotas for diverse representation; professional development around gender issues, reorganising and adding explicit gender content to the curriculum; and promoting open discussion and critical reflection about gender (Gilbert and Gilbert, 1998; Nath, 2017).
If the previously mentioned strategies were implemented, universities could be settings for undoing gender. Gender theorists identify educational settings, such as universities, as strategic sites of influence because education systems are the places where open debate about gender relations is likely to happen (Connell, 1989; Myton, 2018). Yet we know little about educational interventions that fulfil this potential role, as previous research and policies have focused on issues of access. While increased enrolment in education represents an important structural change, it does not ensure that everyday interactions will be altered. The ideas explored in this paper respond to Deutsch's call to spotlight the social processes that underlie resistance to conventional gender relations and focus on how to change the power dynamics and inequities that may exist in situations that privilege traditionally gendered politics (2007, p. 107).
In this paper we consider how education can be a strategic site of influence in undoing gender and we also investigate some ways that gender is 'undone' in planned and unplanned moments through the example of the work of the SEIT Women's Group (SEIT-WG). Members of this diverse group foreground the presence of women in STEMM and their attempts to encourage more women to enter non-traditional areas. Intent on doing the 'diversity work' (Ahmed, 2017) of increasing the participation of women and ethnically diverse people in the traditionally male domain of STEMM, SEITWG attempts to bring about dialogue between expressions of support for diversity and the actual experiences of those who embody diversity. In doing so, SEITWG aims to breach what Ahmed refers to as the academic 'brick walls' or barriers to undoing gender by foregrounding the presence of women already active in the area; mentoring women students and staff; supporting a range of their colleagues' endeavours to research and teach for inclusion; embedding gender analysis into the curriculum; and promoting workplace cultural change.
The authors, who are SEITWG members, reflect upon the ways in which they work individually and collectively to effect change. A common thread identified concerning the ways individuals approached diversity work was a wilful rejection of dominant narratives that attempted to constrain women within traditional spheres. While wilfulness is often defined in negative terms as an obstinate and sometimes perverse condition, in our narratives, wilfulness is a positive and enabling force that has supported our efforts to re-write normative narratives and author our own stories. Our identification as 'wilful subjects' is in line with Sara Ahmed's (2010, p. 5) notion of wilfulness:
To be called obstinate or perverse because you are not persuaded by the reason of others? Is this familiar to you? Have you heard this before? When you are charged with wilfulness it is as if your being is an insistence on being, a refusal to give way, to give up, to give up your way. Can what we are charged with
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become a charge in Alice Walker's sense, a way of being in charge? If we are charged with wilfulness, we can accept and mobilize this charge.
Thus, the actions and philosophy of the group of 'wilful subjects' (Ahmed, 2012) emphasizes the need for change among both individuals and social structures in order to transform the university.
IN CONTEXT
SEITWG was formed in response to the problems outlined in the previous section concerning the lack of women in higher levels of academia and in STEMM in general. This group was initiated as a means of bridging the gender gap in STEMM and draws on female academics and research students not only in the STEMM field but also in interdisciplinary fields of gender studies and education. Gender studies, by illustrating the potential of interdisciplinary scholarship in today's scientific and technical university can increase the representation of women in STEMM fields (Colatrella, 2014). Collaborations between STEMM, gender studies and education fields is being developed within SEITWG and this is helpful for preparing women to participate in SEIT, where the need of a diverse workforce with scientific and technical knowledge is clear and cannot be overemphasised.
SIETWG's founding members are located in the discipline area of Information Technology (IT) in the School of Science, Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) at Federation University. SEIT is currently made up of approximately 72 staff members across four discipline areas: Science (geoscience), Engineering, Mathematics and Information Technology. The geoscience discipline area has eight staff members, three of which are women. Of the fourteen people employed in the discipline of Mathematics, four are women. With about twenty staff members, the engineering discipline is predominantly male dominated and had only one woman for over a 10-year period. This has recently changed with a new woman engineer recently appointed. The IT discipline, though having a greater number of staff, is not very different, with only six women in a pool of thirty-one staff. All these women, with the exception of one, are employed on a full-time basis, and are expected both to teach and undertake research. Research within the school is mainly quantitative with an emphasis on Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. The school however also has qualitative researchers in the areas of Health Informatics and Information Systems, amongst which are women. The SEIT women are of diverse ages ranging from early thirties to late fifties but all are 'junior' or entry level academics. They identify with a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The group is predominantly middle class with two members self-identifying as coming originally from low socio-economic backgrounds. There is also a range of ethnic and racial identifications in the group membership encompassing the following: Caucasian Australian, Nigerian, and Asian backgrounds.
The difficulties that women experience in the SEIT environment are concerned with the following issues. The limited number of women in these fields raise difficulties in finding
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mentors and such diversity within the range of SEIT disciplines as well as the junior status of the group members means that it is sometimes hard to identify colleagues for collaborations. Women in SEIT are generally concentrated in teaching only and junior positions. This situation combined with the predominance of qualitative research conducted by women in SEIT makes it difficult to form research collaborations in an environment that privileges quantitative research. Hence, SEITWG was formed to encourage women to engage with research by sharing ideas and supporting each other. SEITWG brings together women from Federation University's schools of engineering and IT, and education.
SEITWG has become a haven for academic individuals with a variety of scientific, technological and linguistic skill sets and experiences to come together and bridge the fault lines where possible and understand the barriers if evident. There is a general recognition within the group that working in isolation does not work as effectively as working together to find commonalities and disparities in thinking and practices. The thinking connections allow for critical debate around notions of gender fault lines and ways of operating that can be found between, beside, and behind the lines.
Group members wilfully work along gendered fault lines. As women are still predominantly primary care givers (Jericho, 2017), SEITWG members juggle family responsibilities with work responsibilities. In addition, the nature of academic work does not seem to recognise the difference between work and private space at times. These gendered responsibilities and concerns surface in planned and unplanned conversations as SEIT-WG members juggle roles within the workplace and home. For instance, members of the group are comfortable bringing their children to meetings if necessary as there are times when members opt to come to meet while on leave or outside of usual business hours.
METHODOLOGY
In order to complete this project, the authors have adopted a reflective self-study methodology. This adoption of reflective and self-study methodologies ensures that researchers' perspectives and everyday practices can be examined, and socially constructed realities can be investigated (Crotty, 1998; Flick, 2007). From the initial impetus to reflect on our practice as academics, the choice of a self-study methodology (Hamilaton and Pinnegar, 2009) was logical as it was self-initiated, enabled the authors to extend their own reflective practices and also to develop 'powerful insights' into their teaching and learning practices within the academy (Russell, 2010).
In its discussion of and reflection on teaching and other academic issues of practice, the self-study methodology enables the interrogation of issues of practice with the aim of transformative change (LaBoskey, 2004). Being reflexive and focused on specificity, a self-study methodology "suggests that our understanding of teaching and learning derives from contextualised knowledge, by a particularly reflective knower" (Bass, Anderson-Patton and Allender, 2002, p. 56). The research design also draws on LaBos-key's (2004) notion of self-study - self-initiation, qualitative, interactive and focused on
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improvement. Self-initiation occurred as individually and collectively we were struggling with normative notions of gendered identities and how to move beyond these ideas in our work as academics and as members of the wider community outside the university. Also, some time needed to elapse before group members were comfortable discussing their own ideas and perceptions of situations. This echoes the work of Samaras and Freese (2009) who state that they "initially had a fear of sharing our work and making ourselves vulnerable - but as we moved to a feeling of openness and learning together, we found ourselves framing and reframing our understandings" (p. 12). For the authors, sharing and discussing reflective writing opened up this process of allowing group members to read, think about and comment on the ideas and experiences of other group members.
Our data sources included discussions in and after monthly meetings, meeting notes, email exchanges, reflective writing, journaling, observations and dialogue concerning course curriculum planning and implementation. We analysed these data sources, identifying the choices made, questioning why they were made, looking for challenges encountered and observing how these had been met. Discussions ensued about recurring patterns, common experiences and also changes that had been made. These conversations, reflections and analyses inform our reflections upon the ways in which SEITWG wilfully works towards the 'undoing' of gender. All four authors have drawn on their professional reflections of SEITWG meetings, activities and discussions in order to write this paper. The authors have also all adopted the role of a "sceptical colleague" (Pinnegar and Hamilton, 2009, p. 113) as they acted as sounding boards for the discussions concerning the reflections.
There are 10 members of SEITWG and all occupy 'junior' or base-level academic positions. It is a culturally and linguistically diverse group with approximately half the membership having a Caucasian background. From the 10 members of SEITWG, the four authors seized the opportunity presented by the formation of SEITWG to develop a community of practice and pursue research concerning how effective the group is in achieving its aims.
REFLECTION ON SEITWG - A COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS PERSPECTIVE
SEITWG is being shaped as a community of practice (CoP) within a regional university setting. This well-established concept regarding a group of people who work together on projects and/or interests, improving their abilities as they continue to interact and work towards common goals, draws on the idea of the powerfulness of collective learning and shared participation in group projects (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Wenger posited the idea that communities of practice constitute a web of social relationships that participate in the wider world (Lave and Wenger, 1991 cited in Cundill, Roux and Parker, 2015). The SEITWG CoP is a social network with intentions to effect change and promote ideas by collaboration in research and ongoing collegial conversations. Kezar and Gehrke (2017)
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argue that "social networks and CoPs are related to situated cognition theories of change that suggest changes, learning, and improvement occur within organizations as individuals on the ground engage with others" (p. 325). A university might be described as a larger community of practice within which many smaller CoPs reside.
The success of the current SEITWG CoP is partly due to the interdisciplinary nature of the participants, each individual bringing with them different sets of knowledge, work and learning practices. The inclusion of members from the School of Education with different experiences of social interactions with peers provides another layer to the group's understanding of the scholarly interaction/communication/research nexus. Wenger states that "the concept of identity serves as a pivot between the social and individual" (Wenger, 1999, p. 145) and that individuals derive their sense of identity within a CoP by what they bring to the group. An understanding of how the differing levels of research expertise add to the wider knowledge of the group has been observed in the writing of this article. SEITWG members involved in writing together are learning together and developing a sense of common purpose, not only discovering the richness of interdisciplinary research but also the supportive strength of collegiality and critical friendship which in turn contributes to innovative ways of working and problem solving. One of the great pleasures of working in SEITWG is the strength of commitment and wilful charge that pervades a great deal of the work completed.
Some of the practical ways that SEITWG undoes gender stereotypes is through engaging with potential members and students both within and outside the university. These initiatives include a mentoring scheme built on a three-way connection between female students from a local high school, university women students, and university Alumni. The difficulties involved in appropriately matching students with mentors meant that the scheme is not currently available and will need some work before it is mobilized again. Various social opportunities were used to assist women students and faculty to establish connections. These events included morning and afternoon teas for all faculty women -staff and students; lunch with the Dean of SEIT and Head of School; and 'coffee catch ups' where academic and administrative staff come together for brief conversations about issues concerning them or solely for the social interaction. More formal opportunities were established in the form of meetings for all women staff and students to identify specific issues of concern to women on campus and online. Additionally, a project titled Robo girls (female school students exploring the field of robotics) was suggested but not developed.
DISCUSSION
From conversations and critical reflections, it appears that there are many ways that gender is 're-done' and also 'undone' in education institutions. A common thread running through the situations, interactions and thinking that enabled 'undoings' of gender by SEITWG members was the common identifications of a wilful pleasure concerning the act/s of undoing. The other aspects of these acts of undoing that was noted was that they
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were part of a process or action - they were in the process of becoming something else or changing, of moving beyond stereotypes during these acts of undoing. These elements interact in our examples of challenging gender stereotypes so that the 'undoing' of gender is revealed as an action or process enabled by the diversity work of wilful subjects that is a catalyst for shiftings beyond gender norms with a frisson of pleasure at moving away from normative narratives. These wilful undoings of gender occur chiefly in the area of education (curriculum design), policy implementation and institutional culture - the latter intertwine and overlap.
Wilful Undoing of gender through education
In this paper we consider how education can be a strategic site of influence in undoing gender and we also investigate some ways that gender is 'undone' in planned and unplanned moments through flexible teaching practices that 'seize the teachable moment'. The paper also investigates how these teachable moments of undoing gender might be further developed by embedding gender analysis into the curriculum, engaging students and tutors in critical reflection and dialogue, and emphasising the need for change among both individuals and social structures. Classroom discussions and the use of cultural and political vignettes (CPVs) are two pedagogical approaches used by SEITWG members to promote the examination and undoing of gender relations. These approaches were used by SEITWG members teaching in undergraduate initial teacher education programs in the School of Education.
Classroom discussions with pre-service teachers (PSTs) at tertiary level, lecturers and tutors can address some of the normative perceptions of masculinities and femininities attributed to job stereotypes by examining gendered discourses as and if they appear in the literature within prescribed coursework. In a second year Bachelor of Education course, PSTs debate how roles are portrayed in children's literature. They are then invited to participate in online forums to critically interrogate the literature and form opinions about how they will approach gendered conversations in primary classrooms. A critical literacy approach encourages young children to think critically about social issues and helps them to process the stream of information that enters their conscious and sub-conscious minds with greater sensitivity (Minott, 2011).
Although academics reported some trepidation concerning conducting classroom dialogues about gender, race and class with pre-service teachers (PSTs), all felt that these were important discussions to explore as they addressed some unexamined stereotyped perceptions. Academics who identified as white cis gender middle class women stated that they sometimes felt their identifications and background were an advantage in the sense that the majority of students could relate to them, but they felt that this situation made it difficult to discuss difference and diversity. However, another academic who identified as a working-class woman of colour commented that she also found gender, race and class extremely difficult to discuss in class as she was often either perceived as the embodiment of difference or her difference to hegemonic narratives of race, gender and class was
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completely ignored by students who seemed to adopt a kind of colour-blindness to deal with her wilfully diverse presence in their midst. Due to this academic's wilful insistence on the importance of analysing and breaking down conventional narratives of gender, race and participation in STEMM, she developed a curriculum design that incorporated cultural and political vignettes (CPVs) to explore a range of issues regarding gendered stereotypes and participation in STEMM. "CPVs are mock cultural and political situations that are presented to teachers so that they can practice the complex decision-making skills that they need to use in [...] diverse classrooms" (Darvin, 2011, p. 346).
While CPVs are similar to role plays, they incorporate space to permit reflection, analysis and discussion of experiences. In this way, CPVs move beyond the dimensions of role play by enabling participants to adopt a range of subject positions that may even be contradictory at times. By experiencing the CPV as a means of exploring a diversity of identities and backgrounds, PSTs are enabled to reflect on their own subject positions, cultural identifications and actions regarding a variety of social, political, and school-based concerns. In conjunction with these examinations of social, political and cultural characteristics, the experience of completing CPVs allows PSTs to reflect on their individual teaching approaches as well as encouraging them to design and implement learning activities for their own teaching practices. From these reflections planned and unplanned conversations occurred that troubled and often encouraged an undoing of gender.
Prior to the CPV's commencement, any issues or potential problems were noted and possible ways of dealing with these issues were recorded. At the end of the CPV, the PSTs examined their own experience in relation to their values and beliefs and entered into dialogue with their peers, sharing, where they were comfortable, what they had learned. Relevant formal literature on the topic was included through breaks in the process where everyone turned to what they felt were enlightening readings previously made available to PSTs. It is important to note that CPVs were employed after four weeks of tutorials in which values and assumptions were discussed as well as ways in which gender and other characteristics of diversity might moderate students' learning in general and specifically in the area of STEMM.
One of the CPV scenarios used with PSTs is as follows:
Simon, a graduate teacher is the designated IT expert in his school with a diverse student population. With a full workload, teaching technology and design in Years 7 and 8, Simon has a number of girls who are increasingly becoming disengaged while the boys in the classes often state they are bored by the course material taught.
Simon is searching for ways to stop students from disengaging from working with technologies.
Discuss, write and perform two short scenes that sum up the cultural and gender issues in this case.
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After this CPV was discussed in tutorials, PSTs investigated, discussed and performed role plays that were based on notions of conventional femininity, hegemonic masculinity and assumptions about cultural diversity. Discussions tended to focus on some stereotypical thinking regarding what might engage female and male students in STEMM and IT learning activities. Here, notions of hegemonic masculinity and discourses of meritocracy - if females are worthy and talented enough, they will be able to participate in STEMM and IT based activities - surfaced. Some strong and careful diversity work was needed from the tutor in this situation, to both listen to student comments and challenge normative thinking while also foregrounding student voices that brought up ideas beyond the conventional. From these comments, lists of strategies and local community resources that could be employed to assist teachers to move beyond stereotypical thinking and actions regarding gender were developed.
Feedback from the PSTs regarding CPV participation indicated that they found the CPVs to be helpful in exploring subject positions that were different to their own within a safe CoP. Despite generally positive student involvement with CPVs, there were some difficulties in their implementation. At times PSTs struggled with adopting and maintaining a persona that was different to their own, particularly when it needed to be maintained throughout the CPV in a range of situations. Some PSTs displayed some wariness regarding the CPV process when their thinking was challenged, especially those attitudes prevalent in their own local communities. A few students did not participate directly in performing or role playing in the CPV; instead, these students wrote responses. In these cases, written expression was perceived to be less confronting than direct physical involvement in the CPV. At times, the urge to 're-do' gender was strongly felt in the tutorial room and was combatted by the equally powerful urge reportedly felt by the tutor to wilfully challenge convention.
The experience of using CPVs to investigate gender issues regarding STEMM and IT useage in education activities emphasized the importance of bringing together theory and practice in supportive CoP environments when working with future teachers and educators. It also underlined the need for all teaching resources and language at all levels of education - early childhood, primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions - to be inclusive of a diversity of student characteristics, backgrounds and contexts. These practices of inclusive teaching were especially important for PSTs and students who, while they are currently situated in rural/regional areas that lack diversity, after graduation, may teach in education environments with diverse populations.
Wilful undoing of gender through policy and institutional culture
As well as wilfully undoing gender through the design and development of interactive and challenging teaching activities, SEITWG members also continued their diversity work through CoP approaches. By using strategic dialogue with more senior staff members and working collaboratively and supportively, SEITWG members continued to undo gender at the levels of policy and also workplace culture. SEITWG members used formal
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opportunities in staff meetings as well as informal gatherings in the lunchroom to open up dialogue around general university policy that had gendered implications for staff. Maternity leave provisions and employment policy and practices were two of the main areas of concern. The former is still being debated with a considerable amount of work still to be accomplished in this domain. However, dialogue focusing on the latter issues has generated considerable change.
It is important to note that an integral aspect of SEITWG's strategic use of CoP approaches entailed wilful subjects finding allies across fault lines of gender and power with more senior male academics. In meetings and informal discussions with senior staff members, SEITWG individuals wilfully and consistently foregrounded the problems entailed in traditional approaches to academic employment that focus on the applicant's research output rather than considering both scholarship and teaching. This approach does not take into account, for example, gaps in work history due to family responsibilities which affects a significant percentage of female academics (Baker, 2010) and also the higher concentration of women teaching and completing 'academic housekeeping' tasks in the academy (Guarino, 2017). As a result of these discussions, a consensus was achieved where all job applicants would be considered on the basis of their achievements relative to opportunity as well as knowledge and understanding of contemporary pedagogies - thus, giving equal weight to research and teaching. This meant that the predominantly female candidates who had taken leave or assumed part-time work and carer responsibilities were assessed on evidence demonstrating their aptitude and willingness to undertake research and teach even if they did not strictly meet general academic guidelines for research outputs. One senior academic commented that if a candidate "could keep her research ticking over while on leave, that is evidence that she could build her research when she is back fulltime at work". From the adoption of this focus and process promoted by the coalition of wilful subjects, an increased number of female staff have been employed over the last eight years.
In addition to being instrumental in changes in understandings and implementation of employment procedures, carried along fault lines of power and gender, SEITWG members have also been wilfully driving forces behind workplace cultural change. For example, SEITWG members and their more senior allies have challenged gendered representations of women in videos produced for IT academic staff training and School promotion purposes. In one case, there was an obvious lack of female characters as well as a dependence on gender stereotypes in a series of videos of different scenarios involving IT academic and industry staff that was produced for SEIT. The coalition of the wilful identified and challenged this gaping lack of female presence, undoing normative narratives. When a senior academic attempted to re-do conventional gender constructions, stating "But this [the gender stereotypes depicted] is how it is", members of SEITWG, with an impassioned wilfulness, identified, described and analysed normative narratives of gender generally and specifically in the domain of IT. Then SEITWG members detailed how this re-doing of gender would impact negatively on workplace culture and relations within
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the School of IT with possible repercussions across Schools throughout the university and in communities outside the tertiary institution. Due to this wilful undoing of gender conventions, the videos were re-shot with more women characters in the scenarios in both technical and support roles.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, SEITWG brings together a diverse range of women who act individually and collectively using Community of Practice (CoP) approaches with the purpose of wilfully undoing gender stereotypes and dominant discourse concerning STEMM and IT. These 'undoings' are interventions involving a coalition of wilful subjects - allies whose subject positions cross fault lines of gender and power. Undoings are wilfully worked into collaborative and collegial work across the university and in communities outside this tertiary institution. Moments of undoing gender are also integrated into pedagogy as well as curriculum design and development. SEITWG members employ discussions of language use and concrete examples of moving beyond traditional notions of gender infuse courses in education and IT. The wilful use of CPVs enables the undoing of gender in planned and unplanned conversations. In addition, wilful examinations of normative gendered narratives are strategically mobilized in formal and informal meetings and discussions to challenge policy and workplace culture.
In this framework of wilful undoings of conventional gender narratives, the acknowledgement of the lived experience of the individual recorded in written reflection, jour-naling, notes from meetings and conversations were used as the basis for scholarly interrogation in the form of a reflective self-study. As a result of the positive responses from those within and people outside SEITWG, the authors argue that the strategies and activities we have employed in order to wilfully undo conventional gender narratives are transferable to other women's groups both within Australia and also on a global stage. This framework provides ways to identify and undo dominant discourse regarding stereotypes concerned with gender and STEMM especially in areas of policy and workplace culture. The framework could also contribute towards the development of a high-quality inclusive education for pre-service teachers in universities throughout the world. With consideration of the work that SEITWG has done concerning collegial collaboration, curriculum, pedagogy, policy examination and workplace culture investigation, there is little doubt that the group has produced critically considered, effective and passionately wilful undoings of gender.
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Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 73-90 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.3.73-90
UDK: 378 Znanstveni prispevek
Monika Govekar-Okoliš, Renata Kranjčec
NALOGE MENTORJA ZA KAKOVOSTNO MENTORSTVO VIŠJEŠOLSKIM ŠTUDENTOM
POVZETEK
Prispevek prinaša spoznanja o nalogah mentorja in mentorstvu v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju višješolskih študentov. Pri tem je na kratko opisan pomen formalnega mentorstva in mentorskega odnosa, ki je značilen za kakovostno mentorstvo. Naloge mentorja višješolskim študentom v praktičnem usposabljanju so najmanj raziskane, zlasti, katere so naloge, ki naj bi jih mentor poznal in tudi uresničeval, da bi lahko dosegel kakovosten mentorski odnos in mentorstvo. Namen raziskave je bil ugotoviti, katere so pomembne naloge mentorjev za kakovostno mentorstvo višješolskim študentom. Raziskava je temeljila na analizi vprašalnikov z odgovori mentorjev, ki so se udeležili usposabljanja na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani. Ugotavljali smo, katere naloge so mentorji navajali, kako so jih izvajali oziroma uresničevali v praktičnem usposabljanju višješolcev. Ugotovitve raziskave prinašajo nova spoznanja o tem, koliko mentorji poznajo in izvajajo oziroma uresničujejo naloge mentorja ter katere naloge so pomembne za izboljšanje kakovosti mentorstva višješolskim študentom.
Ključne besede: formalno mentorstvo, mentorski odnos, praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje, naloge mentorja, višješolski študenti
MENTOR TASKS IN QUALITY MENTORING FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS - ABSTRACT
The article discusses findings concerning mentor tasks and mentoring in practical student training and education for college students. It begins with a short description of the importance of formal mentoring and the mentoring relationship, which also applies to quality mentoring. The tasks of mentors in practical training for college students are the least researched, particularly the tasks that the mentor should know and also realise in order to achieve a quality mentoring relationship and overall mentoring. The purpose of the study is to discover the important tasks mentors have in quality college mentoring. The research was based on an analysis of questionnaires provided by mentors who participated in mentor trainings at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. We wanted to find out what tasks the mentors mentioned, and how these were implemented and realised in the practical training of college students. The research findings bring new results on how much mentors are familiar with their tasks, how they
Izr. prof. dr. Monika Govekar-Okoliš, Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, monika.govekar-okoHs@guestMrnes.si
Dr. Renata Kranjčec, Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, renata.kranjcec@ff.uni-lj.si
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are performed and realised, as well as which tasks are important for the improvement of their quality of mentoring when it comes to college students.
Keywords: formal mentoring, mentoring relationship, practical training and education, mentor tasks, college students
UVOD
Mentorstvo je danes pogosto uporabljana oblika vodenja v različnih institucijah. Tudi v višjem šolstvu se pojavljata tako formalno kot neformalno mentorstvo. Za formalno mentorstvo je predvsem značilno, da mentorske odnose urejata zakon in organizacija, medtem ko je za neformalno mentorstvo značilno, da se mentorski odnosi razvijajo spontano in temeljijo na podobnosti interesov in izkušenj. Organizacije vzpostavljajo formalne mentorske programe za napredek osebnega in strokovnega razvoja zaposlenih (Russell, 2004; Menges, 2016). V našem prispevku smo obravnavali formalno mentorstvo, za katerega je značilno, da je organizacijsko predpisano. To pomeni, da se mentorski odnosi ne razvijajo le spontano niti ne samo prostovoljno, temveč imajo formalno določen okvir delovanja, načrt, metode dela, cilje in drugo (Rolf, 2007). Taka oblika je na primer mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju, ki ima svoj učni načrt znotraj višješolskega zavoda in sklenjen dogovor za praktično usposabljanje znotraj določenih organizacij, kjer izberejo mentorja praktikantu.
Več o mentorstvu višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju je navedeno v 50. členu Zakona o višjem strokovnem izobraževanju (2013), kjer se omenja, da je praktično izobraževanje del študijskega procesa in je obvezno za vse višješolske študente. Ti opravljajo praktično izobraževanje znotraj višješolskega študija pri delodajalcu. Zakon pravi, da morajo šole sodelovati z delodajalci, ki izvajajo praktični del izobraževanja. Za ta namen se sklene pogodba o praktičnem izobraževanju v skladu s študijskim programom, in sicer med šolo, delodajalcem in študentom. V pogodbi se določijo pravice in odgovornosti študenta ter naloge in odgovornosti delodajalca in šole. Pogoje za prostor in opremo ter za mentorje, ki jih mora izpolnjevati delodajalec, določi pristojna zbornica ali združenje delodajalcev. Zakon tudi navaja, da delodajalec lahko sklene pogodbo o izvajanju praktičnega izobraževanja za študente, če ima ustrezne prostore in opremo, njegovo poslovanje vključuje dejavnost poklica, za katerega se študent izobražuje, ter ima zaposlenega, ki je lahko mentor študentu višje strokovne šole. Tako se ureja formalno mentorstvo študentom višjih šol in se oblikujejo formalni mentorski programi (prav tam). To naj bi se upoštevalo na področju mentorstva višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah.
Katere so značilnosti formalnega mentorstva in mentorskega odnosa v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju, bomo opisali v nadaljevanju, saj so za uspešno tovrstno mentorstvo pomembne tudi naloge mentorja v organizacijah. Nasploh ugotavljamo, da ni veliko raziskav o nalogah mentorja v mentorstvu (Alleman, 1986; Daloz, 1986; Arnold,
Monika Govekar-Okoliš, Renata Kranjčec: Naloge mentorja za kakovostno mentorstvo ... 75
Cooper in Robertson, 1995; Jarvis in Gibson, 1997; Feeney Jonson, 2008; Roles and ..., 2018) niti raziskav o nalogah mentorja v mentorstvu v praktičnem usposabljanju (Opalk, 2003; Brečko, 2006; Govekar-Okoliš, 2011; Kermavnar, 2015; Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec 2016). Raziskav o nalogah mentorja v mentorstvu višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah pa sploh nismo našli. To spoznanje je pomembno za našo raziskavo, saj je naš namen ugotoviti, katere so pomembne naloge mentorja za kakovostno mentorstvo višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah. S tem želimo določiti naloge mentorja za izboljšanje kakovosti mentorstva in sploh mentorskega odnosa do višješolskih študentov.
FORMALNO MENTORSTVO IN MENTORSKI ODNOS V PRAKTIČNEM USPOSABLJANJU
Zanimanje za formalne mentorske programe, kot ugotavlja Yukl (2013), je danes vedno bolj v ospredju zaradi pospeševanja razvoja menedžmenta. To pa zato, ker je mentorstvo pomembna tehnika, kot pravi Menges (2016), za razvoj mlajših zaposlenih in je potencialno učinkovit način njihove socializacije ter širjenja izkušenj. Enakega mnenja sta Kram (1998) in Bernardin (2013), ki pravita, da ima mentorstvo odločilno vlogo pri učenju in razvoju menedžmenta. To je toliko bolj učinkovito, če se poveča prostovoljno sodelovanje in mentor izbere praktikanta ob pogovoru, s pojasnjevanjem ugodnosti in težav ter razjasnitvijo pričakovanih vlog in procesov za mentorja in praktikanta. Za dobro formalno mentorstvo je značilno, kot poudarjajo Arnold, Cooper in Robertson (1995), prostovoljno sodelovanje, da mentorji in praktikanti želijo tak odnos, da praktikanti potrebujejo usposabljanje in usmerjanje, pri tem pa se ceni njihov osebni in profesionalni razvoj. Formalno mentorstvo lahko pomembno pripomore k učinkovitosti in osebnemu zadovoljstvu praktikantov, še posebej, če so formalni mentorski programi dobri ter upoštevajo cilje organizacije kot potrebe praktikanta. Kot primer lahko navedemo nekaj priporočil glede učinkovitosti formalnega mentorstva, o čemer so delali raziskavo Marshall, Adams in Cameron (2005). Ti menijo, da morajo biti natančno določeni namen in cilj mentorskega odnosa oziroma programa, pričakovani rezultati kot tudi pričakovani potek oziroma proces mentorstva. Pri tem naj bodo opredeljene tudi odgovornosti in obveznosti tako praktikanta kot mentorja. Pomembno je tudi, da je opredeljeno, kaj mentor in praktikant pričakujeta, da bosta od procesa mentorstva pridobila, vključno z omejitvami ter vsem, kar se lahko doseže znotraj formalnih mentorskih shem. Kot drugo omenjajo, da je potrebna osebna in profesionalna kompatibilnost, kar se lahko doseže s tem, da damo praktikantu možnost izbire mentorja. Kot tretje priporočilo avtorji poudarjajo, da naj bi se mentorjem ponudila možnost formalnih programov usposabljanja, ki jim bodo pomagali razviti nujne spretnosti za mentoriranje in razumevanje mentorske vloge. Pri tem menijo, da so poleg strokovnega znanja vsaj tako pomembne tudi spretnosti v medosebnih odnosih in komunikaciji. Četrto priporočilo je, da morajo formalni programi mentorstva vključevati tako aktualne potrebe vpletenih kot tudi organizacije. Te morajo biti predisku-tirane, preden se oblikujejo v formalne sheme, pogosto pa so potrebe usmerjene v razvoj
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raziskovalnih spretnosti. Zadnje priporočilo avtorjev pa je, da naj organizacije upoštevajo možnost uvajanja formalnih struktur mentorstva in spodbujajo mentorske odnose. Ti naj bi bili glede na ugotovitve večine njihovih študij bolj učinkoviti, če se razvijejo spontano, prav zato pa naj bi organizacije ustvarjale okolje, ki bi ta razvoj spodbujalo (prav tam). Mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju je formalno določen proces med mentorjem in praktikantom, ki traja dalj časa. Je dinamičen in medoseben proces, znotraj katerega pridobivata izkušnje tako mentor kot mentoriranec. Pomemben dejavnik pri zagotavljanju dobrega mentorstva je pozitivna klima (Kajander-Unkuri, Meretoja, Katajisto, Saarikoski, Salminen, Suhonen in Leino-Kilpi, 2015) pa tudi odprtost in sprejemljivost do mladih in manj izkušenih (Lane, 2016). Da je mentorski odnos dober, mora biti vzajemen. Clutterbuck (2004) govori o vzajemnem spoštovanju med mentorjem in praktikantom, le na tej podlagi lahko prepoznata lastno potrebo po osebnem razvoju ter imata razvito predstavo, kam hočeta iti. Mentorstvo je dolgotrajen odnos, v katerem se cilji, kot pravita Megginson in Clutterbuck (2005), lahko spreminjajo in so oblikovani po željah posameznika. Bistvo pa je v prepoznavanju in razvijanju potenciala posameznika, pri čemer je mentor tisti, ki posamezniku pomaga razviti vpogled in ga nauči z opazovanjem bolje razumeti sebe in se zavedati lastnih izkušenj. V mentorstvu gre za sodelovanje, izmenjavo in razvijanje novih kompetenc, kjer je mentoriranec sposoben učenja in prilagajanja v skladu s pravili (D'Souza, Karkada, Parahoo in Venkatesaperumal, 2015). Podobno omenjata Ramaswami in Dreher (2010), da je bistvo mentorstva v pripravi posameznika za napredovanje. Za to so pomembni elementi mentorstva, kot so vzor, sprejemanje, potrjevanje, svetovanje, prijateljstvo, ki zvišujejo stopnjo samopodobe in samovrednotenja posameznika in mu dajejo občutek kompetentnosti, razjasnjujejo njegovo identiteto ter stopnjujejo posameznikovo uspešnost. Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec (2016) menita, da je mentorstvo proces med mentorjem in posameznikom, kjer gre za prenos znanja in informacij z bolj izkušene osebe na manj izkušeno. Vsako mentorstvo je drugačno oziroma se razlikuje od drugih. Zato je tudi toliko oblik mentorskega dela, kolikor je mentorjev. In zato mora mentor poznati oblike mentorstva, da jih lahko izbira in kombinira glede na posameznikove individualne značilnosti ali glede na skupino posameznikov, saj s tem dosega bolj učinkovito mentorstvo. Kot kaže raziskava, ki sta jo opravili Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec (prav tam), večina mentorjev v praktičnem usposabljanju meni, da je mentorstvo organiziran in skrbno načrtovan proces. Ocenjujejo, da gre za profesionalen, zaupen, spoštljiv odnos, v katerem mentor, izkušenejši in vešči posameznik, prenaša svoje znanje, kompetence, izkušnje, veščine, pa tudi prepričanja in vrednote na mentoriranca. Gre za vzajemen sodelovalen odnos, skupno odkrivanje in učenje, razvoj spretnosti in kompetenc.
Tako lahko ugotovimo, da mentorstvo pomaga odkrivati kritičnega in samostojnega ter ustvarjalnega posameznika, pomeni pa tudi pomoč posamezniku, njegovemu razvoju in boljši vključitvi v okolje (Ramaswami in Dreher, 2010; Sergekus in Baskale, 2016). Ob tem naj še poudarimo, da je mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju pomembno za razvoj praktikantov, njihovo znanje, osebni razvoj ter samouresničevanje (Megginson in Clutterbuck, 2005). Podobne ugotovitve najdemo v raziskavah, ki so jih na področju mentorstva v praktičnem usposabljanju opravile na primer Opalk (2003),
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Kermavnar (2015) ter Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec (2016). Mentorstvo je načrtna pot, proces vodenja, svetovanja, vzajemen, dinamičen in diaden odnos med mentorjem in posameznikom. Gre za usmerjanje posameznika z nasveti in pojasnili, kjer mentor posameznika vzgaja, ga izobražuje, mu svetuje in razvija vedoželjnost ter ga vodi po poti do zastavljenih ciljev (Krajnc, 2006; Sergekus in Baskale, 2016). Posameznik naj bi v mentorskem odnosu gradil svojo osebnost, pridobil določena znanja in izkušnje, kar mu pomaga pri razvoju kariere, lastne identitete in doseganju osebnih ciljev. Različni avtorji (Aderibigbe, Gray in Colucci-Gray, 2018; Holland, 2018) navajajo številne želene značilnosti mentorjev, ob katerih naj bi bilo mentorstvo učinkovita strategija za podporo strokovnega izobraževanja in usposabljanja. To velja tudi za mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju, kjer mora mentor za dosego dobrega mentorstva in mentorskega odnosa ne le poznati, temveč tudi uresničevati določene naloge, ki so značilne za mentorje.
NALOGE MENTORJA V PRAKTIČNEM USPOSABLJANJU IN IZOBRAŽEVANJU
Poznavanje nalog mentorja v mentorstvu je pomembno, saj če mentor te naloge pozna in uresničuje, je pričakovati kakovostnejše mentorstvo. Arnold, Cooper in Robertson (1995) omenjajo, da je naloga mentorja, da pomaga, vodi, uči in svetuje. Naloge mentorja je raziskoval Alleman (1986), ki je v ospredje postavil devet nalog: mentor uči, informira, svetuje, posameznika postavlja pred izzive, vzpostavlja zaupanje, je pozitiven model, ščiti in varuje manj izkušenega posameznika ter razvija prijateljski odnos. Daloz (1986) je v svoji raziskavi poudaril tri naloge: podpora mentorirancu (mentor izraža pozitivna pričakovanja, pozorno posluša, deli mnenja ...), izzivanje mentoriranca (mentor omogoča ustvarjanje kognitivne disonance in mentoriranca postavlja pred nove dileme in naloge) in vizija mentorirancu (mentor daje jasno usmeritev in je vzor). Raziskava, ki sta jo opravila Jarvis in Gibson (1997), opisuje naslednje naloge mentorja: spodbujanje zanimanja, dajanje informacij, demonstriranje postopkov, povezovanje in iskanje analogij, pomoč pri premagovanju ovir, oblikovanje refleksije in izražanje podpore, vrednotenje in razvijanje samoocene ter svetovanje in vodenje.
O tem, katere so naloge mentorja v mentorstvu, je delala raziskavo Feeney Jonson (2008, str. 8), ki je poudarila, da je najpomembnejša naloga mentorja, da s posameznikom razvije odnos, ki temelji na zaupanju, spoštovanju in kolegialnosti. Poleg te pa sta pomembni nalogi mentorja še, da daje podporo in spodbudo mentorirancu, kar pomembno vpliva na njegov razvoj. Avtorica poudarja, da so z mentorjevimi cilji vedno povezane tudi mentorjeve naloge v razmerju do mentoriranca. Pravi, da mentor:
•	razvija kompetence mentoriranca (ta pridobi znanja, spretnosti in tiste kompetence, ki so nujne za opravljanje poklica),
•	dviga samozavest mentoriranca (ta postane odgovoren, verjame vase in v svoje odločitve),
•	spodbuja samorazvoj mentoriranca (ta pridobi sposobnost prevzeti nadzor nad osebnim in profesionalnim delom),
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•	skrbi za razvoj profesionalnosti mentoriranca (ta razume in spoštuje dolžnosti in etična načela svojega poklica).
Podobno se omenjajo naloge mentorja v delu Roles and Tasks of a Mentor (2018), kjer so kot pomembne naloge mentorja navedene:
•	vzpostavitev pozitivnega odnosa z mentorirancem. To lahko vključuje vzpostavljanje zaupanja in spoštovanja v odnosu ter vzdrževanje redne interakcije in dosledne podpore;
•	pomoč mentorirancu razviti akademske in življenjske spretnosti. To lahko vključuje sodelovanje z mentorirancem, da ta določi in doseže osebne, izobraževalne in poklicne cilje, ter pomoč pri vzpostavljanju časovnoupravljalske, študijske in komunikacijske spretnosti;
•	pomoč mentorirancu, da se poveže z viri študija na fakulteti oziroma univerzi. To lahko vključuje pomoč mentorirancu, da se seznani s kariernim centrom, centrom za kvantitativne veščine, knjižnico, svetovalnimi storitvami in drugimi viri pri študiju na fakulteti;
•	postati vir podpore in usmerjanja. Ena od najpomembnejših stvari, ki jih lahko naredimo kot mentor, je, da smo mentor zaradi mentoriranca. To je dovolj preprosto, vendar lahko zajema več stvari. Ključna pa je pripravljenost mentorja na mentorstvo.
Ugotovimo lahko, da se med nalogami mentorja omenja pozitiven, zaupanje vzbujajoč in spoštljiv odnos mentorja do mentoriranca. Poleg tega je pomembna naloga mentorja, da daje podporo, pomoč in spodbudo mentorirancu. Pomembna naloga mentorja je prav tako razvijanje različnih kompetenc pri mentorirancu, ki so povezane z njegovim študijem, bodočim poklicem in delom. Mentorjeva naloga je, da podpira osebnost mentoriranca in ga usmerja v njegovem osebnem razvoju. Več tujih raziskav o nalogah mentorja v mentorstvu nismo zasledili. Nas pa zanimajo naloge mentorja v mentorstvu v praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah.
Na področju mentorstva v praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah obstaja malo raziskav. Eno izmed teh je opravila Opalk (2003). O tem, kakšne so naloge mentorja v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju, je ugotovila, da je pomembna mentorjeva naloga, da ustvarja priložnosti za učenje na področjih komuniciranja, odgovornosti, kritičnega mišljenja, prilagodljivosti in timskega dela (Opalk, 2003, str. 14). Naloge mentorja v mentorstvu v organizaciji je raziskovala Brečko (2006). Opisuje, da mora mentor uvajati posameznika v strokovne naloge, mu omogočiti dostop do strokovnega znanja, ga navajati na pravila organizacije, protokol ... Mentorjeva naloga je, da posameznika usmerja k načrtovanju aktivnosti, mu pomaga reševati delovnopravna vprašanja in skrbi za spoznavanje posameznika v organizaciji.
Naloga mentorja v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju v organizaciji je, da vpliva na praktikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje ter je pozoren na dejavnike, ki lahko zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta. Mentor je pozoren na motivacijo praktikanta, njegovo čustveno doživljanje, skrbi za uspešno delo, učenje in izobraževanje posameznika.
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Naloga mentorja je tudi, da skrbi za lasten profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni (Govekar-Okoliš, 2011). To so naloge, ki v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju študentov pripomorejo h kakovostnejšemu mentorstvu in sploh mentorskemu odnosu. Zato smo iz tovrstne klasifikacije nalog mentorja izhajali tudi pri našem raziskovanju nalog mentorjev višješolskim študentom.
Naloge mentorjev v praktičnem usposabljanju v organizaciji je raziskovala tudi Kermav-nar (2015), ki je ugotovila, da so te ključnega pomena za učinkovito mentorstvo. Njena raziskava je pokazala, da so mentorji v organizaciji dobri strokovnjaki, nimajo pa dovolj andragoških in psiholoških znanj ter sposobnosti za bolj kakovostno izvajanje mentorstva. Zato je avtorica poudarila potrebo po ustreznem izobraževanju mentorjev, kjer bi ti spoznali in pridobili poleg drugih pomembnih vsebin o mentorju in mentorstvu tudi znanja o nalogah mentorja za izboljšanje kakovosti mentorstva. Piše, da je »mentorjeva prva naloga vzbuditi zaupanje pri mentorirancu in mu pomagati, da verjame vase in v svoje sposobnosti za doseganje želenih ciljev« (Kermavnar, 2015, str. 34).
Iz omenjenih raziskav lahko spoznamo, da so naloge mentorja v mentorstvu v organizacijah različne, zajemajo pa bistvene značilnosti mentorjevega delovanja v odnosu do men-toriranca. Nekatere mentorjeve naloge so bolj usmerjene na vplivanje na posameznika in njegov osebni razvoj (na primer mentor skrbi za ustrezne okoliščine za učenje, kritično mišljenje mentoriranca, odgovornost, prilagodljivost, vpliva na razvoj posameznikovih osebnih zmožnosti, na motivacijo, skrb za uspešno delo ter za osebni in poklicni razvoj). Druge naloge mentorja so bolj usmerjene na strokovno področje oziroma delovanje v organizaciji (na primer ustrezno vpeljevanje posameznika v organizacijo, njegovo reševanje strokovnih nalog, spoznavanje pravil organizacije, timsko delo). Tretja vrsta nalog mentorjev je bolj informativne narave, denimo da mentoriranec zna povezati obstoječa znanja z novimi znanji in izkušnjami (na primer mentor ustvarja priložnosti za učenje na področjih komuniciranja).
Katere naloge mentorjev za kakovostno mentorstvo v organizacijah so poudarili mentorji višješolskim študentom, ki so se udeležili usposabljanja mentorjev na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, bomo ugotavljali in opisali v nadaljevanju prispevka.
METODOLOGIJA Namen in cilji raziskave
Glavni namen raziskave je bil ugotoviti mnenja mentorjev, udeležencev omenjenega izobraževanja, o nalogah mentorja za kakovostno mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju višješolskih študentov. Cilji raziskave pa so bili ugotoviti, kako mentor vpliva na prakti-kantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje, kako vpliva na dejavnike, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta, kakšna je pozornost mentorja do posameznikove motivacije ter kakšna je pozornost do čustvenega doživljanja praktikanta. Zanimalo nas je tudi, kako mentor skrbi za uspešno praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje ter za lasten profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni. Želeli smo ugotoviti, katere od omenjenih nalog
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mentorjev (povzete po Govekar-Okoliš, 2011) so mentorji pogosteje navajali in kako so jih izvajali oziroma uresničevali v praktičnem usposabljanju. S tem smo želeli spoznati, koliko mentorji poznajo naloge v mentorstvu in se zavedajo njihovega pomena, kakšne so njihove dosedanje izvedbe oziroma uresničevanje teh nalog ter katere naloge so pomembne za izboljšanje kakovosti njihovega mentorstva višješolskim študentom.
Raziskovalna metoda
Uporabili smo deskriptivno metodo raziskovanja in analizirali mnenja mentorjev o nalogah mentorja v praktičnem usposabljanju. Raziskava je temeljila na analizi vprašalnikov delovnih listov, ki so jih mentorji izpolnili na usposabljanju za mentorje študentom višješolskih programov. Usposabljanje je, kot rečeno, potekalo na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani.
Udeleženci
V raziskavi je sodelovalo 18 mentorjev z izkušnjami mentorstva višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah. Imena organizacij niso so anonimna. Med sodelujočimi je bilo deset žensk in osem moških, vsi so se v študijskem letu 2014/15 udeležili posodobitvenega programa Usposabljanje mentorjev višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju. Program v obsegu 24 ur je bil objavljen v Katalogu programov nadaljnjega izobraževanja in usposabljanja strokovnih delavcev v vzgoji in izobraževanju za šolsko leto 2014/15 ministrstva za izobraževanje, znanost in šport.
Zbiranje podatkov
Vir podatkov so bili vprašalniki delovni listi, ki so jih mentorji na usposabljanju za mentorje izpolnjevali v manjših skupinah (praviloma trije v skupini). Analizirali smo delovne liste vseh šestih skupin. Mentorji, ki so se udeležili usposabljanja za mentorje, so odgovarjali na naslednja vprašanja, povzeta po klasifikaciji nalog mentorjev po Govekar-Okoliš (2011):
1.	Kakšno je vplivanje mentorja na praktikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje?
2.	Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do dejavnikov, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta?
3.	Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do motivacije praktikanta?
4.	Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do čustvenega doživljanja praktikanta?
5.	Kako mentor skrbi za uspešno praktikantovo praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje?
6.	Kako mentor skrbi za lasten profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni?
Metode obdelave podatkov
Podatke, pridobljene iz zapisov, smo analizirali po omenjenem usposabljanju. Odgovori, pridobljeni s šestih delovnih listov po skupinah, so bili prepisani in analizirani tako, da smo najprej v okviru posamezne naloge analizirali število navedb o izvedbi oziroma uresničevanju nalog mentorjev višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju (glej Preglednico 1). Nato smo analizirali odgovore, kako so skupine mentorjev posamezno
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nalogo že izvajale oziroma uresničevale v praktičnem usposabljanju. Glede načina izvajanja oziroma uresničevanja naloge je posamezna skupina lahko navedla več odgovorov. Naredili smo analizo vsebine, vendar brez kodiranja. Pri predstavitvi odgovorov glede posamezne naloge mentorja je povzetek vseh glavnih ugotovitev mentorjev po skupinah z dodano interpretacijo tudi posameznih avtorjev, ki dopolnjujejo mnenja sodelujočih mentorjev.
REZULTATI IN INTERPRETACIJA
Odgovore mentorjev o nalogah mentorja višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju, pridobljene iz delovnih listov sodelujočih po skupinah, prikazujemo v Preglednici 1 (število navedb o izvedbi oziroma uresničevanju posameznih nalog), kjer spoznamo pogostost navajanja nalog mentorja, ki so jih mentorji višješolskim študentom identificirali in v praktičnem usposabljanju že izvedli oziroma uresničili.
Preglednica 1: Število navedb izvedbe oziroma uresničevanja nalog mentorja v praktičnem usposabljanju
NALOGE MENTORJA	ŠTEVILO NAVEDB* O IZVEDBI OZ. URESNIČEVANJU NALOG
1. naloga: Vplivanje mentorja na praktikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje	2
2. naloga: Pozornost mentorja do dejavnikov, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju	8
3. naloga: Pozornost mentorja do motivacije praktikanta v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju	7
4. naloga: Pozornost mentorja do čustvenega doživljanja praktikanta v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju	4
5. naloga: Skrb mentorja za uspešno praktikantovo praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje	19
6. naloga: Skrb mentorja za lasten profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni	2
* Skupine so imele možnost navedbe več načinov izvedbe oziroma uresničevanja posamezne naloge.
Iz Preglednice 1 izhaja, da mentorji poznajo vse navedene naloge mentorja in da so jih različno pogosto tudi uporabili pri svojem mentorstvu. Kako pogosto so jih navajali in kako so jih izvajali oziroma uresničevali, pa predstavljamo za vsako nalogo posebej.
1. Kakšno je vplivanje mentorja na praktikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje?
Vseh šest skupin je izvedbo oziroma uresničevanje te naloge omenilo le dvakrat. Glede načina uresničevanja te naloge so mentorji zapisali, da so pozorni na ideje in ustvarjalnost študentov praktikantov, da so njihove ideje tudi pripravljeni sprejeti ter praktikanta
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usmerjati k njihovi uresničitvi. Prav tako poskušajo ugotoviti njihova pričakovanja in jim zadostiti. Pri tej nalogi naj poudarimo, da je ustvarjalnost študenta praktikanta sposobnost, ki je mentor ne more izsiliti. Pri nekaterih praktikantih je bolj, pri drugih manj razvita. Mentor jo mora le spodbujati. Eni praktikanti so bolj, drugi manj ustvarjalni, zato mora biti mentor odprt za različne dileme, pripombe, vprašanja in predloge. Eno izmed pomembnih vprašanj za mentorja je, kako naj pri praktikantih razvija oziroma spodbudi ustvarjalno mišljenje. Rečnik (2004) razlaga, da ustvarjalno mišljenje poteka v štirih razvojnih stopnjah (glej Sliko 1):
Priprava (preparacija):
označuje spoznavanje nekega problema, pomeni proučevanje vidikov problema, opazovanje drugih podobnih problemov in načinov, kako so bili rešeni; gre za čim širše spoznavanje problema in zbiranje podatkov o njem.
Zorenje (inkubacija):
podatki, ki so bili zbrani na predhodni stopnji, na tej stopnji zorijo, praktikant se ukvarja s stvarmi, ki nimajo povezave z glavnim problemom, vendar ves čas potekajo nezavedne miselne aktivnosti, ki so usmerjene k reševanju problema.
Razvrstitev (iluminacija, inspiracija):
je stopnja, ko nenadoma pridemo do rešitve, ideje. Idejo, ki se je pojavila, je treba takoj obdelati, saj izkušnje kažejo, da lahko hitro izgine v pozabo.
Preverjanje (verifikacija):
praktikant na koncu preverja rešitev oziroma idejo in jo primerja z že znanimi dejstvi in argumenti ter znanjem.
Slika 1: Stopnje ustvarjalnega mišljenja (prirejeno po Rečnik, 2004)
Spoznamo, da mora mentor upoštevati omenjene štiri stopnje, skozi katere se razvija praktikantovo mišljenje, kajti ko jih bo mentor upošteval, bo tudi praktikantu omogočil, da se bo njegovo ustvarjalno mišljenje razvijalo. Opisane razvojne stopnje ustvarjalnega mišljenja so mentorjem lahko v pomoč pri uresničevanju naloge, v okviru katere mentor vpliva na praktikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje, saj smo ugotovili, da to nalogo sodelujoči mentorji v mentorstvu višješolskim študentom redkeje uresničujejo.
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2. Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do dejavnikov, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta?
Izvedbo oziroma uresničevanje te naloge je šest skupin omenilo osemkrat. Mentorji so zapisali, da to nalogo uresničujejo tako, da so pozorni predvsem na notranje dejavnike pri študentu praktikantu, zlasti psihološke. Prepoznati poskušajo raven že usvojenega znanja pri študentu, ugotoviti njegove prednosti in šibkosti ter mu ustrezno svetovati in ga usmerjati. Prav tako so pozorni na njegovo motivacijo za delo in pričakovanja. Odprti so za njegove ideje ter sprejemajo skrb za njegov razvoj in napredovanje. Pozorni so tudi na zunanje dejavnike, torej tiste v okolju. V smislu socialnih zunanjih dejavnikov praktikante seznanijo z organizacijsko kulturo. Poskrbijo tudi za ustrezne fizikalne zunanje dejavnike, kot sta ustvarjanje ugodnega delovnega okolja in skrb za ustrezna delovna sredstva. Ta naloga mentorja je prav tako pomembna, saj mora biti mentor pozoren na čim več dejavnikov, ki lahko slabo vplivajo na delo praktikanta ter zavirajo njegovo učenje v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju. Kljub mentorjevemu prizadevanju, da spodbuja praktikanta, so lahko prisotni različni dejavniki, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje. Pri tem je pomembno, da mentor odkrije, kateri dejavniki so tisti, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje praktikanta. Ti dejavniki so lahko v najširšem pomenu notranji dejavniki (v praktikantu) in zunanji dejavniki (v okolju). Prikazujemo jih v Preglednici 2.
Preglednica 2: Notranji in zunanji dejavniki, ki zavirajo učenje (prirejeno po Marentič Požarnik, 2000, str. 130)
NOTRANJI DEJAVNIKI (V PRAKTIKANTU)	ZUNANJI DEJAVNIKI (V OKOLJU)
Fiziološki (stanje čutil, živčevja, zdravstveno stanje, senzomotorična koordinacija idr.)	Fizikalni (opremljenost in oblikovanost prostora za učenje in delo)
Psihološki (umske in druge sposobnosti, stili učenja in spoznavanja, motiviranost za učenje, osebnostne lastnosti, npr. samozavest)	Socialni (izvirajo iz družbenega okolja, najprej iz družine, nato s fakultete in iz širšega okolja)
Ugotovimo, da dejavniki delujejo ločeno drug od drugega, vendar se med seboj prepletajo. Zato ni mogoče potegniti ostre meje med notranjimi in zunanjimi. Mentor najlaže vpliva na psihološke dejavnike (Marentič Požarnik, 2000), kar so potrdile tudi navedbe po skupinah sodelujočih mentorjev.
3. Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do motivacije praktikanta?
Vseh šest skupin je izvedbo oziroma uresničevanje te naloge omenilo sedemkrat. Kako to nalogo uresničujejo oziroma izvajajo v mentorstvu? Mentorji so izrazili posebno pozornost do praktikantove motivacije. Pripravljeni so sprejemati praktikantove ideje in jih razvijati, pri tem mu svetujejo in skrbijo za njegovo napredovanje. Pozorni so do njegovih
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pričakovanj, poskušajo pa ga motivirati tudi za skupinsko delo. Pri tem naj poudarimo, da je motivacija zelo pomembna za mentorja in za praktikanta, saj vpliva na kakovost njunega sodelovanja ter kakovost dela v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju. Mentor se mora zavedati pomena motivacije pri praktikantu. Motivacija vodi praktikanta k praktični dejavnosti in učenju, brez nje ni namernega in učinkovitega učenja. Praktikant svojo energijo usmerja v doseganje zastavljenih ciljev v praktičnem usposabljanju in pri tem tudi vztraja. Vrsta in stopnja motivacije določata temeljitost praktičnega dela in učenja ter kakovost rezultatov prakse (Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec, 2016). Poznamo zunanjo ali ekstrinzično in notranjo ali intrinzično motivacijo. Marinko (2016) omenja, da zunanjo motivacijo označuje izrazita ciljna usmerjenost, pri čemer posameznikovo dejavnost poganja sam cilj, ne pa ugodje. Zanjo so značilne spodbude, celo nagrade in kazni, ki prihajajo iz posameznikovega okolja. Notranja motivacija izvira neposredno iz človeka samega oziroma njegovih notranjih spodbud. Močan vir notranje motivacije so osebni interesi in cilji, pri čemer posameznik dela določeno stvar zaradi ugodja in užitka, ki ju ob tem občuti (prav tam, str. 14). Za zunanjo ali ekstrinzično motivacijo gre takrat, kot omenja Marentič Požarnik (2000, str. 188), kadar smo zunanje motivirani, se učimo zaradi zunanjih posledic. Cilj ni v dejavnosti (na primer spoznati, razumeti neko dejanje), temveč v določeni posledici (oceni, pohvali, da se izognemo graji, v poklicnem napredovanju). Zunanja motivacija ni trajna; če zunanje podkrepitve ni več, tudi dejavnost preneha. Zunanja motivacija je večinoma povezana s pritiski, napetostjo, zaskrbljenostjo, nizkim samospoštovanjem in podobno. Druga vrsta motivacije pa je notranja ali intrinzična motivacija. Njena značilnost je, da je učenje le sredstvo za doseganje pozitivnih posledic in izogibanje negativnim posledicam. Cilj delovanja je v dejavnosti sami. Vir podkrepitve je v osebi sami, ki želi obvladati določene spretnosti. Rezultat notranje motivacije je ustvarjalnost, širjenje interesov in razvoj sposobnosti (prav tam). Menimo, da ko praktikant v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju odkrije pravi smisel svojega dela, se sproži notranja motivacija, zato svoje delo opravlja zavzeto in z veseljem. Zato ugotavljamo, da je ena od pomembnih nalog mentorja tako po mnenju sodelujočih mentorjev kot različnih avtorjev prav ta, da je mentor pozoren na motivacijo praktikanta. Motivacija praktikanta namreč pomembno vpliva na odnos med mentorjem in praktikantom ter tudi na doseganje zastavljenih ciljev praktičnega usposabljanja in izobraževanja.
4. Kakšna je pozornost mentorja do čustvenega doživljanja praktikanta?
Izvedba oziroma uresničevanje te naloge je bila med vsemi šestimi skupinami omenjena štirikrat. Mentorji torej to nalogo izvajajo. Kot pišejo v odgovorih, se zavedajo, da je ključnega pomena pri praktičnem usposabljanju komunikacija s praktikanti, ki mora biti konstruktivna. Posebej se zavedajo pomembnosti sprotnih povratnih informacij o uspešnosti opravljanja dela. Zavedajo se tudi pomena pohvale in graje. Prav tako štejejo za pomembno končno povratno informacijo z analizo in oceno opravljenega usposabljanja. Naj omenimo, da naj bi bil mentor v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju pozoren tudi do čustvenega doživljanja posameznega praktikanta, to pa bo, če bo poznal pomen čustvenega doživljanja. Čustveno doživljanje vpliva na uspešnost učenja in dela v
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praktičnem usposabljanju. Šibka prijetna čustva lahko povečajo učinek učenja in dela, medtem ko neprijetna čustva zmanjšujejo učni učinek in učinkovitost dela v praktičnem usposabljanju. Zato je pomembno, da mentor pozna tudi pomen pohvale in graje, ki jo izreče praktikantu. Pri tem naj se mentor zaveda vpliva obeh na praktikanta (Govekar--Okoliš in Kranjčec, 2016). Rezultati raziskave (Marentič Požarnik, 2000, str. 199-200) so pokazali, da mentor s pohvalo usmeri posameznika na konkretne prednosti dosežka ali dejavnosti, pohvala naj bo bolj stvarna kot osebna. Pohvala mora biti spontana in pristna. Če je praktikant že notranje motiviran, potrebuje le stvarno povratno informacijo, ki ga usmerja k nadaljnjemu praktičnemu delu. Drugače je, če je praktikant le zunanje motiviran, takrat mu lahko pravilno izrečena pohvala veliko pomeni, zato mora biti ta usmerjena v konkreten napredek praktikanta. Pri pohvali je pomembno poudariti vloženi napor prak-tikanta in ne le njegove sposobnosti. Mentor se mora zavedati, da pohvala okrepi predvsem intenzivnost napora (praktikant se bolj potrudi in hitreje dela), da pa mentorjeva pohvala ne more bistveno dvigniti kakovosti dela praktikanta pri zahtevnejših problemih. V nasprotju s pohvalo pa naj bo graja stvarna ter usmerjena na konkretne napake in pomanjkljivosti, nikakor ne sme biti osebna in nikakor ne sme biti povezana s premajhnimi sposobnostmi praktikanta. Poudariti moramo, da sta pohvala in graja uspešnejši, če je temeljni odnos med mentorjem in praktikantom dober ter v njem prevladujeta spoštovanje in zaupanje (Marentič Požarnik, 2000).
Nasvet za mentorja: Najbolje je, da pohvalo ali grajo mentor izreče praktikantu na štiri oči, v skupini pa le, če vlada v njej dobra skupinska klima. Rezultati učenja, znanja, spretnosti in navad, ki jih praktikanti pridobijo v praktičnem usposabljanju, so življenjska potrditev, da so usvojili določeno znanje, in prav to je tista prava notranja podkrepitev učenja, bistvena praktikantova notranja spodbuda k intenzivnejšemu in kakovostnejšemu učenju in delu. Mentor mora stalno in učinkovito vzdrževati praktikantovo pozornost, sicer motivacija usahne (Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec, 2016). To so poudarili tudi anketirani mentorji. Povejmo še, da poleg motivacije in čustvenega doživljanja k učinkovitemu učenju in delu praktikanta na praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju pomembno pripomorejo inteligentnost, učni stili, učne navade in učne metode, o katerih naj bi imel vsak mentor ustrezna znanja. Iz odgovorov mentorjev po skupinah spoznavamo, da se ti zavedajo pomena konstruktivne komunikacije in sprotnih povratnih informacij o uspešnosti opravljenega dela. Zavedajo se tudi pomena pohvale in graje ter končne povratne informacije z analizo in oceno opravljenega usposabljanja.
5. Kako mentor skrbi za uspešno praktikantovo praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje?
Izvedba oziroma uresničevanje te naloge je bila v vseh šestih skupinah omenjena največkrat, kar 19-krat. Za to nalogo so mentorji zapisali, da jo izvajajo in uresničujejo. Razumejo jo predvsem kot načrtovanje praktičnega usposabljanja in njegovo izvedbo po predpisanem programu. Bolj konkretno v okviru te naloge navajajo najprej seznanitev praktikanta z delovno organizacijo, z navodili za delo oziroma načinom dela, nato pa pridejo na vrsto opredelitev ključnih nalog, vodenje in usmerjanje skozi delovni proces
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za dosego zastavljenih ciljev ter svetovanje, skrb za učenje in prenos strokovnega znanja v praktično delo. Kadar gre za skupinsko delo, vidijo svojo nalogo v izbiri primernega vodje skupine. Pomembni elementi so tudi nadzor nad delom praktikantov, komunikacija z mentorjem na šoli, ocenjevanje in analiza praktičnega dela ter končnega izdelka (na primer projektne naloge). Prav tako se zavedajo pomena evalvacije praktičnega usposabljanja. Naj ob tem poudarimo, da je ena od nalog mentorja skrb za uspešno in strokovno praktikantovo učenje in delo v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju. Predvsem pa je za mentorja pomembno, da ve, kako lahko to doseže. Pri tem naj omenimo izsledke raziskave (Rečnik, 2004), po katerih mora biti mentorjeva razlaga jasna in zanimiva (nikakor ne suhoparna in monotona). Mentor mora pri razlagi upoštevati začetno pritegnitev in razvoj pozornosti praktikanta, spreminjanje in nihanje pozornosti, potrebni so kratki odmori, predahi, humor ..., razlaga ne sme biti samo predavanje na strokovni ravni, temveč tudi prikaz povedanega v praksi z uporabo ponazoril (na primer avdiovizualna sredstva), vključevanjem praktikantov v pogovor in diskusijo ter sprotno evalvacijo. Mentorji naj praktikantom pojasnjujejo, kako naj bodo aktivni, da bo njihova aktivnost smiselna ter bo znanje uporabno v teoriji in praksi. Ob tem naj bi bili mentorji pozorni na sam proces mentorstva, na mentorske odnose in komunikacijo, kar potrjujejo tudi odgovori sodelujočih mentorjev, da je posebej pomembna mentorjeva naloga, da je pozoren, ali je praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje uspešno in ali praktikanta vodi k zastavljenim ciljem. Te naloge se mentorji višješolskim študentom najbolj zavedajo in jo najbolj upoštevajo.
6. Kako mentor skrbi za lasten profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni?
Med vsemi skupinami se izvedba oziroma uresničevanje te naloge omenja le dvakrat. Tisti mentorji, ki so to nalogo omenili, jo tudi uresničujejo, in sicer skozi vseživljenjsko izobraževanje in učenje. Nanjo gledajo kot na svoje napredovanje ter osebnostni in strokovni razvoj, ki se dogaja prek evalvacije njihovega dela. Ob tem poudarimo, da naj bi mentorji nenehno spremljali svoje delo, svoje spretnosti, vendar to še ne pomeni, da zaradi tega avtomatično delajo bolje in da so dobri mentorji. Nekaterim še po mnogih letih ne uspe dovolj razviti nekaterih spretnosti. Deloma to pomeni, da je uspešno delo mentorja odvisno od njegovih sposobnosti in motivacije. Mentorji morajo imeti sposobnost, da se nekaj naučijo tudi iz analize lastnega dela, za kar morajo biti motivirani (Govekar-Okoliš in Kranjčec, 2016). O tem je delala raziskavo Opalk (2003), ki je ugotovila, da je proces mentorstva lahko koristen tudi za mentorje. Mentor se prek poučevanja tudi sam uči, mentorstvo mu pomaga, da ostaja seznanjen z novostmi na svojem področju in je izpostavljen novim idejam praktikanta. Ob uspehih praktikanta tudi mentor doživlja notranje zadovoljstvo ter potrditev svojih znanj in sposobnosti. Širi se njegova mreža poslovnih znanstev zunaj organizacije. Tudi Youngs (2000) je v svoji raziskavi ugotovil, da se morajo mentorji sami stalno izobraževati, dopolnjevati svoje znanje, da so na tekočem v svoji stroki. Za mentorje so primerni tisti strokovnjaki iz prakse, ki sprejemajo obveznosti v izobraževanju praktikantov kot dodatne, stalne ali občasne naloge in so se pripravljeni za to posebej andragoško usposobiti. Poudaril je pomen vseživljenjskega učenja in izobraževanja. Za uspešno delo mora mentor razviti tudi ustrezno samopodobo. To pomeni, da sta
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od tega, kaj mentor meni o samem sebi, odvisni njegovo vedenje in ravnanje. Avtor pravi, da je samopodoba odnos do samega sebe. Je celotna podoba lastne vrednosti in notranja predstava o nas samih. Mentor z visoko samopodobo je oseba, ki rada sodeluje z drugimi, je odločna, optimistična oseba in zaradi teh dejavnikov tudi učinkovitejša v gradnji medo-sebnih odnosov. Tak mentor pozitivno vpliva na proces praktičnega usposabljanja in učenja, nove izkušnje mu pomenijo izziv, s problemi se sooča in jih hitro rešuje. Poudarimo lahko, da je za mentorja z visoko samopodobo značilno, da je za svoja dejanja pripravljen prevzeti odgovornost, se zaveda pomembnosti svojih dosežkov in ne potrebuje nenehnega odobravanja drugih. Kot je vesel svojih uspehov, je vesel tudi uspehov drugih in z vzorom največ pripomore k oblikovanju pozitivne samopodobe pri praktikantih. Pomembno je, da mentor razvije svojo poklicno identiteto, kar poteka skozi proces socializacije.
Skrb za osebni profesionalni razvoj mentorja je, kot lahko spoznamo iz raziskav, zelo pomembna naloga mentorja, ki pa je sodelujoči mentorji v mentorstvu višješolskim študentom ne izvajajo oziroma uresničujejo pogosto. Je pa to ena od nalog, ki pomembno pripomore h kakovosti mentorstva. Iz opisov mentorjevih nalog lahko spoznamo, da mora biti mentor v praktičnem usposabljanju in izobraževanju v organizacijah uspešen, izkušen strokovnjak, ki zna dati nasvete, učiti, zna podpirati in olajšati proces praktičnega usposabljanja, predvsem pa mora biti oseba, ki je motivirana za odgovorno in strokovno vodenje praktikanta na praktičnem usposabljanju prek vzajemnega partnerskega odnosa, medsebojnega zaupanja in tudi svetovanja. Mentor je oseba, ki zna voditi in motivirati ter usmerjati praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje praktikanta k doseganju potrebnih znanj in izkušenj.
SKLEP
V raziskavi smo ugotovili, da mentorji višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju v organizacijah med analiziranimi nalogami najpogosteje navajajo skrb za uspešno praktikantovo praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje. To nalogo izvajajo tako, da praktikanta seznanijo z delovno organizacijo, navodili praktičnega usposabljanja in izobraževanja, načinom dela in cilji. Znotraj te naloge skrbijo za nadzor študentov, za prenos strokovnih znanj in izkušenj, za učenje in svetovanje ter sprotno in končno evalvacijo. Pri vsem tem pa jim je pomembno tudi sodelovanje s šolo. Spoznali smo, da so mentorji pogosto pozorni na dejavnike, ki zavirajo uspešno učenje in delo praktikanta. To nalogo izpolnjujejo tako, da so pozorni do psiholoških dejavnikov, saj študentom pomagajo s svetovanjem in usmerjanjem pri praktičnem delu. Poudarjajo pa tudi pomen zunanjih socialnih dejavnikov iz okolja, zato študentom pomagajo pri spoznavanju kulture dela, delovnih razmer in ustreznih delovnih sredstev. Mentorji so poudarili tudi pozornost do motivacije praktikantov, saj so posebej pozorni na posameznikove želje, te želje sprejemajo in jih pomagajo uresničevati. V okviru te naloge skrbijo za praktikantovo napredovanje, tako da mu svetujejo in ga usmerjajo pri delu. Med mentorjevimi nalogami je pomembna tudi ta, da so pozorni na praktikantovo čustveno doživljanje v praktičnem usposabljanju. To nalogo mentorji uresničujejo tako, da so pozorni na komunikacijo s praktikantom, poudarili so pomen sprotne in končne povratne informacije, ki morata biti ustrezni.
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Med najmanj izstopajočimi izvedenimi nalogami mentorji omenjajo, da vplivajo na prak-tikantove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje. To nalogo uresničujejo tako, da upoštevajo praktikantove ideje, želje in poskušajo zadostiti njegovim pričakovanjem. Prav tako med najmanj izstopajočimi nalogami omenjajo skrb za svoj lastni profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni, kar jim omogočajo vseživljenjsko izobraževanje in učenje kot tudi evalvacija študentov in samoevalvacija mentorstva v praktičnem usposabljanju.
Ugotovitve naše raziskave so zanimive, vendar jih ne moremo posploševati na naloge mentorjev višješolskim študentom v celoti, prav tako tudi ne na naloge mentorjev v kateremkoli mentorstvu. Iz skupinskega navajanja mnenj mentorjev, ki so se udeležili po-sodobitvenega programa Usposabljanje mentorjev višješolskim študentom na praktičnem usposabljanju, gre vsekakor sklepati, da sodelujoči poznajo naloge mentorja in dobro izpolnjujejo štiri od analiziranih nalog mentorstva. Mentorstvo lahko uspešno opravljajo z uresničevanjem posameznih nalog mentorja, zlasti pa tistih, ki se usmerjajo v skrb za uspešno formalno mentorstvo, od organizacije, izvedbe do evalvacije praktičnega usposabljanja in izobraževanja. Sploh je v ospredju njihova skrb za uspešno študentovo praktično usposabljanje in izobraževanje. Z raziskavo smo tudi ugotovili, da se bodo morali mentorji višješolskim študentom bolj posvetiti zlasti dvema nalogama, in sicer biti bolj pozorni na svoje vplivanje na študentove osebne zmožnosti za ustvarjanje, poleg tega pa tudi na svoj lastni nadaljnji profesionalni razvoj, tako osebni kot poklicni. To sta nalogi, ki sta pomembni za izboljšanje kakovosti mentorstva višješolskim študentom v vzorcu naše raziskave. Zaradi omejenosti vzorca bi veljalo raziskovanje nalog mentorja za kakovostno mentorstvo v praktičnem usposabljanju višješolskih študentov v organizacijah nadaljevati, saj se zavedamo, da je med mentorji v organizacijah več takih, ki nimajo pedagoško-andragoške izobrazbe in si z nadaljnjimi usposabljanji o mentorstvu dopolnjujejo znanja tudi o nalogah mentorja za izboljšanje kakovosti mentorstva in mentorskega odnosa z višješolskimi študenti.
LITERATURA
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Kermavnar, N. (2015). Mentorstvo kot andragoška oblika dela na primeru praktičnega usposabljanja študentov (Doktorska disertacija). Filozofska fakulteta Univerza v Ljubljani, Ljubljana.
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Russell, J. E. A. (2004). Mentoring. V C. D. Spielberger (ur.), Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology (str.
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Turkey. Nurse Education in Practice, 17(2), 134-138. Youngs, B. B. (2000). Spodbujanje vzgojiteljeve in učiteljeve samopodobe: priročnik za vzgojitelje in
učitelje v vrtcih, osnovnih in srednjih šolah. Ljubljana: Educy. Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Zakon o višjem strokovnem izobraževanju (ZVSI) (2013). Uradni list RS, št. 86/04 in 100/13. Pridobljeno s http://pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAK04093.
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 91-93 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.24.3.91-93
Knjižne novosti	91
Ana Hofman (ed.)
SCIENCE (WITHOUT) YOUTH: Gendering Early Academic Careers in Slovenia
Ljubljana, Založba ZRC, 2017
How is it possible to foster gender equality in academia if the academic field is gradually marked by precarity, particularly in the early stages of academic careers? How do early career scholars deal with the challenges of their professional environments and what are the potential strategies of structural change that can contribute to the improvement of equal opportunities in academia? These are the questions that Science (without) Youth: Gendering Early Careers in Slovenia [Znanost (brez) mladih: Zgodnje stopnje znanstvene kariere skozi perspektivo spola] raises and strives to discuss in its introduction and the seven chapters that follow. The book is a result of the GARCIA project that targets combating gender inequalities in academia by taking an innovative approach - focusing on researchers in non-tenured, temporary positions.1
The book is based on extensive analyses of various types of materials - formal acts and policies, quantitative and qualitative data (40 semi-structured interviews, 20 in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics - STEM and 20 in Social sciences and humanities - SSH selected target institutions).2 Such an approach enables the authors to provide insight into the complexities of the gender regimes in Slovenian academia, by putting statistics and structural level analysis side by side with personal accounts. The introduction presents the readers with the general conceptual orientation of the book, situating the approach to the issue of gender asymmetries within the current processes of the neolib-eralisation of academia.3 After giving an overview of the relevant literature on the topic and an extended explanation of the methodology, the introduction further discusses the
1	"Gendering the Academy and Research: Combating Career Instability and Asymmetries"; for more information about the project, cf. http://garciaproject.eu/.
2	This encompasses three target sub-groups: postdocs, newly tenured staff, and the so called movers/leavers. The latter were defined as people who (1) had moved from the higher education/research institution to continue their research careers (in the same or a different country) at public or private universities or research centres, or who (2) had left the higher education/research institution to embark on careers unrelated to research.
3	The authors are completely aware of the necessity to differentiate between different academic institutions and national higher education and research systems when discussing the issue of the neoliberalisation of academia.
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structural conditions that crucially affect gender-related imbalances: changing funding patterns, policy of new managerialism, casualisation of academic work, working patterns and unpaid labour, and the Leaky Pipeline phenomenon.4 The introduction is followed by two chapters that analyse formal acts, policies and quantitative research: in the opening chapter, Sanja Cukut Krilic critically reflects on the current approaches to the issue of gender equality that rarely take into account social norms and expectations; she argues for the necessary inclusion of the intersectional approach to the various layers of social stratification in the future analysis of this topic. In the second chapter, Majda Černič Is-tenič presents the degree to which gender-sensitive statistics in Slovenia follow the global international trends of uncovering the leaving and leakage of female PhD holders from academia. This chapter problematises the gap, reflected in the lack of key information on leaving the academic sphere and the related unemployment rate, which could shed light on the overall trends as well as the magnitude of the loss of young people in contemporary academia. The next four chapters take the qualitative approach and discuss three main topics: work-life balance policies and practices, construction of excellence (in recruitment and promotion), and mentoring practices. Tanja Petrovič focuses on the dynamics of the professional versus the other aspects of the academic's life, showing that women (and men) in the early stages of an academic career may not be facing the same structural and normative opportunities and constraints in institutional and disciplinary contexts. In the chapter on the construction of academic excellence in Slovenia, Jasna Fakin Bajec and Polona Sitar reveal gendered sub-texts in the experiences of the recruitment procedures of their interlocutors. They show how 'excellence' is not a gender-neutral objective notion, but rather a socially constructed, constantly changing process, one that continually reproduces the underlying gender assumptions and the subordinated or excluded position of women. The following chapter by Duška Kneževič Hočevar reflects on the practices of mentoring and the way mentorship is experienced in the SSH and STEM fields. After she gives an historical overview of the programme for Young Researchers (1985) and discusses the lack of official mentoring programmes for early career researchers, the author argues that it is necessary to approach the issue of mentorship within the context of academic neoliberalism and the current construction of scientific excellence criteria. Based on an analysis of the dominant discourses and ongoing public debates, as well as the comparative analysis conducted by the GARCIA project, the last chapter on academic (im)mobility in the context of Slovenian academia, written by Jovana Mihajlovic Trbovc, offers reflections on the structural factors that determine the advantages and disadvantages of mobility for academics at the early stages of their careers. The chapter particularly examines the construct of a 'national science' and the structural self-reproduction of the academic community (so called academic inbreeding) in Slovenia. The concluding contribution by Oto Luthar engages with some concrete circumstances and conditions of gender asymmetries in Slovenian academia and makes suggestions for dealing with them. The contribution tries to pay attention to the dynamics between politicised 'performance',
4 A metaphor that refers to dropping out of the scientific profession and manifests itself in the poor representation of women at all levels of academic profession.
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which is not directed at solving accumulated problems, and substantial action in the interest of the academic community.
Science (without) youth shows that a focus on early career researchers does not just afford a more nuanced view of gender inequality but provides insight into the growing inequality among academics in Slovenia and Europe as well. The book strives to take an intersectional approach as the authors have tried to look at how gender roles intersect with ethnicity, class, religion, age, etc. Moreover, the book strives to express gender pluralism and challenge cisnormativity and androcentrism in language, being the first scholarly book in Slovenia that implements the usage of the underscore, for which it has already gained attention among academics in Slovenia. Book is fully available in electronic form at: https://ikss.zrc-sazu.si/sites/default/files/attachments/znanost_brez_mladih_web.pdf.
Ana Hofman
Andragoška spoznanja, 2018, 24(3), 95-96 DOI: http://dx.doi.Org/10.4312/as.24.3.95-96
Knjižne novosti	95
Roman Kuhar and David Patternote (eds.)
ANTI-GENDER CAMPAIGNS IN EUROPE: Mobilizing against equality
London, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
Anti-gender campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against equality, edited by Roman Kuhar and David Patternote, consists of various subchapters with a common theme - the analysis of anti-gender movements that are appearing and consolidating across Europe. According to the authors, the movements' common background is an opposition to the so called 'gender ideology' or 'gender theory'. In these anti-gender movements and campaigns, 'gender ideology' is perceived as an ideology that aims to destabilize and even destroy social values that are seen as cornerstones of Western civilization, namely, the notion of 'biological sex', heterosexuality, family, and freedom. To formulate it differently, 'gender ideology' is perceived to be socially dangerous because of the effect sexual and reproductive rights, women's rights, and LGBTIQ+ rights have on the taken-for-granted and privileged status of heterosexuality and of a specific family form, that is, family with a 'male' and 'female' parent ('heterosexual family'). Namely, with feminist and LGB-TIQ+ movements (where LGBTIQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, inter-sex and queer people) and their accomplishments throughout history, heteronormativity cannot simply be taken for granted anymore; moreover, it is destabilized to such a degree that its explicit and direct defence is made necessary: its common sense status needs to be rebuilt and stabilized by 'unmasking' what 'gender ideology' supposedly stands for and by revealing its 'threatening' consequences.
The idea of 'gender ideology' thus serves as a 'straw man', a face of moral panic, established through the politics of fear and produced for right-wing political parties and civil society actors, now capable of uniting around a misconception of 'gender' as being an unnatural product with unnatural, anti-social consequences for what is perceived to be natural - biological - gender, and natural 'heterosexual' family: "In this context, 'gender ideology' becomes a 'threat' - an empty signifier, which allows coalition making with a variety of actors precisely because of its 'populist emptiness'." (p. 15). Through various subchapters, different ways of mobilizing against gender equality are analysed in-depth, including political and civil society actors, national differences and their similarities, as well as strategies that are being deployed against LGBTIQ+ and feminist movements, accused of promoting 'anti-social' values.
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The analysis of the anti-gender movements' strategies is of special importance, showing the full extent of appropriating the language of rights, freedoms, and freedom of speech in particular, from the predominant framework in which they were used, and thus turning it into an 'empty signifier', that is, emptying it of the previously integral progressive and emancipatory values built up throughout the historical developments of gaining and achieving equality. Instead of explicit and direct opposition to women's and LGBTIQ+ rights, opponents now recognize that being referred to as 'backwards' and being seen as 'on the wrong side of history' do not have the desired and aimed for political effects, that is, reproducing the social status quo, at least not when confronted with progressive movements. Despite the progression in terms of emancipation and achieving equality being far from linear, the mobilization of anti-gender movements clearly shows its achievements cannot be taken for granted (e.g. as evident in the case of abortion rights being seriously threatened).
Kuhar and Patternote, along with the contributions of other authors, offer a rich analysis of campaigns and movements against equality. Their work is significant not only in academic terms but also for progressive civil society, taking into account the times, characterized by widespread right-wing political mobilization not only against women and the LGBTIQ+ community, but also against numerous social Others (refugees, migrants, etc.). In this regard, their contribution can be seen as an intervention aiming not only to provide answers to the questions of right-wing mobilization against equality, but also to open up space and establish opportunities for serious questions to be posed to progressive movements, their mobilization and campaigns, including (or especially) the difficulties in terms of establishing coalition politics, united around common causes - emancipation and equality.
Nina Perger