Reclaiming Lives


Personal Reflections on the Practice of
Adult Education


by Cheryl Senecal

Many
women adult
educators
experience
isolation,
frustration,
and
exhaustion as
a result of
working in an
environment
of backlash.

As an education and extension coordinator responsible for the development and delivery of a sexual harassment prevention education program, I have experienced challenges to my understanding of adult education theory and practice. Many women adult educators experience isolation, frustration, and exhaustion as a result of working in an environment of backlash, and it is imperative that we enter our "truths into the public record and onto an agenda for action" (Payeur, Taylor, and Warren iii). By naming our personal experiences of backlash, we become more able to break the cycle of resistance and denial that allows violence to continue and trivializes initiatives set up to address it.

There are deficiencies in the field of adult education that prevent the recognition and meaningful support of the adult educator's role, and hinder the legitimation of the personal and emotional dimensions of practice. As such, they undermine the learning process for both learners and educators and contribute to a sense of confusion, loneliness, and vulnerability in adult educators. The experiences I draw on come out of my work with the Saskatchewan Women's Secretariat's Sexual Harassment Prevention Program. The points I want to discuss are grouped into three areas representing the limitations, contradictions, and denials I have experienced as a practitioner.

Limitations

  1. Adult education is not a panacea; the adult educator is not a magician. Addressing a threatening and controversial issue such as sexual harassment through education is only a part of the solution. Generations of socialization practices that reinforce sexist attitudes and violence against women cannot be corrected in a workshop series or a one day seminar. Though the ongoing work to change peoples' attitudes about issues of gender equity and sexuality has to start much earlier than when they enter the workplace, workplace education is most effective when it is done strategically, with management (and unions in unionized workplaces) developing and implementing effective policy, dealing appropriately with harassers, and providing complainants with support. Too often this does not happen. Too often education is viewed as the solution to the problem when in fact it plays a limited, though important, role.

Les formatrices d'adultes qui travaillent dans le domaine social (ex : animer des ateliers sur le harcèlement sexuel) se heurtent souvent àa des milieux hostiles. Elles trouvent rarement dans leur profession un appui solide et la dimension personnelle et affective de leur travail n'est pas reconnue.

Il est difficile de rester optimiste et énergique si l'isolement, la frustration et l'épuisement ne sont jamais admis ou compris; les éducatrices (j'en suis un exemple) réfrènent souvent leurs réactions épidermiques de peur d'être taxées de radicalisme, de sensibilité démesurée ou d'irrationalité ou de voir la question rejetée. Notre travail comporte souvent de grands risques et peut être débilitant. Or, une réaction émotive peut être mal interprétée : elle n'est pas en mesure de répondre aux exigences de la profession.

Voici quelques suggestions pour changer la pratique de l'éducation des adultes. Il faut reconnaître que l'éducation ne constitue qu'un volet de la solution pour résoudre une question d'ordre social, donner la possibilité aux formatrices et formateurs de se ressourcer physiquement, psychologiquement et spirituellement, établir des liens avec des organismes communautaires et des réseaux de soutien, tracer des liens plus étroits entre la théorie et la pratique en ce qui concerne l'éducation des adultes et continuer les recherches pour remettre en question l'optique masculine traditionnelle sur l'éducation des adultes.



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