Effects on Learning

So what do students' experiences of violence have to do with their learning in a graduate studies program? I quote from a letter Anita wrote to another student in which she replied to this very question. “It has everything to do with where we are now and the kind of work that we are doing, and hope to do when we finish this program! I think it is all about bringing ourselves from the margin to the centre. We know our experience. We may question it and devalue it, but it is ours - not what someone thinks it should be.” In this way, I come to appreciate that for many students their experiences with violence are central, not peripheral, to their studies. As a result, it is important for both teachers and students to understand that women's personal contexts represent a “primary reality”² and starting point for further learning.

Breaking silence and gaining voice are two of the obvious outcomes of feminist learning processes

Previous editions of Women's Education des femmes have documented “the painful reality of women, violence and education” and have emphasized the importance of fostering women's empowerment so as to prevent further violence.³ Like these stories, my students have shared experiences in which women's access to education was constrained, their equity inhibited and their safety neglected. That these women endure and overcome all sorts of hardships is testimony to their strength and resolve, since doing so is neither easy nor without risks. Pat offers an example of the difficulty involved when she writes, “Reflecting on that time of my life when I was married to an abusive alcoholic is not easy for me to do and watching Educating Rita was a painful experience for me ... but in retrospect, [it] was very worthwhile. It certainly prompted me to think a great deal about my past, who I am and where I am going.”

Like the connected teaching/learning approaches advocated by the authors of Women's Ways of Knowing, the women I teach appreciate becoming subjects of their learning where they can integrate personal interests with professional needs and workplace learning. Each of these needs and interests influences and builds on the other, so as a teacher I encourage this holistic approach to learning. However, feminist and connected learning processes are not without critics, as documented in a letter written to me by Sheila in which she describes “the disdain with which some of my colleagues speak ... [of those] being paid to do their course work on the job and receiving credits for doing their job.” I note that although it is often liberating for women to develop knowledge through consciousness-raising and praxis, this educational approach can be threatening to others, whether colleagues or teachers, who do not support feminist ideology nor understand education as a site for change.

Coping Strategies

I have learned that it is most often through autobiographical writing, reflection, dialogue and critique that women gain voice and self-awareness. Returning to the story told earlier about the sexist supervisor, for example, Mary remarked that “as our experience and knowledge increased so too did the depth of our analysis. Then we were no longer outside observers to the reproduction of male power and privilege in academic, we were experiencing it. It was autobiography.” Breaking silence and gaining voice are two of the obvious outcomes of feminist learning processes. Gaining voice, however, is perhaps best understood as an ongoing process and challenge, rather than as a product or quantifiable achievement. Beverley writes: “I'm finding that 'the voice' that I have uncovered has brought new responsibilities, as well as freedom. Grappling with those responsibilities, trying to sustain the voice, feeling comfortable with it and its ramifications are a challenge. There are many old habits and patterns to break and they are not going to be let go of all that easily. I find myself having to reaffirm that voice often.”