Re-Visioning Self and Society: Stories of Career Education for Women

Abstract

The author works in a special access program called the Certificate in Career Education for Women (CEW), run by the Technical and Further Education Commission of New South Wales throughout the state, as well as in her particular rural location on the south-eastern coast of Australia. Women come to the course from diverse backgrounds, seeking to increase their confidence, knowledge and power, and the woman has been fascinated by their often-remarkable successes in achieving their goals. Therefore the woman also sets out in search of knowledge and power in her world as woman and teacher, seeking higher education, becoming student and researcher, to gain understanding of the learning that occurs in the course, and if it is indeed, 'special'. Seeking ways to write about her self and her students that are empowering, the woman finds feminist company to make space for their voices, knowing that the personal also speaks the political. She challenges traditional social science conventions, combining academic and literary genres to create a many-layered narrative. The woman's voice tells her own story of university learning through various social contexts. The voices of the women from the CEW course share their stories of learning together and as individual adult learners in a feminist program. The stories form a tapestry of tales about career education for women, which are in dialogue with each other and the audience, as well as in conversation with the writing and research of other authors, both academic and literary. Narrative theory frames the stories, constructing the text but simultaneously naming it as construct, conjuring more questions. In this way the woman explores and examines major themes that are crucial to women's learning in a range of specific social contexts. Diverse voices and issues interweave: from methods to space, from writing to time, from work to family, from life to death, from globalisation to resistance, from social isolation to social contact, from separating to connecting people, power and knowledge. Insights are gained but complexities are not diminished with overly simplistic solutions.