International women as popular educators: An inquiry into the nature and implications of everyday experience

This study reports on the results of a research project designed to explore the everyday life experiences of women who work as popular educators. Popular education is defined as education that seeks to promote change; is based on dialogue; begins with an examination of people\u27s everyday experience; employs a highly participatory methodology; and promotes action and reflection. By examining the experiences of women who work as popular educators, this study seeks to understand how women have come to understand themselves as actors in the world and their reflections on education as part of a process of radical social change. Two primary questions framed the research: (1) who are the women who choose to work as popular educators and (2) what has been the nature of their everyday experience. The study examines common themes that emerged from the interviews, and draws out implications so that all practitioners of popular education may reflect on the potential for a gendered analysis of their work. The study was undertaken by conducting phenomenological interviews with an international sampling of ten women who have substantial experience working as popular educators. The information gathered from these interviews is represented here in four ways. Autobiographical profiles introduce the participants and provide contextual data on the range of their experience and background. Five selected work profiles are then presented for the purpose of focusing in on everyday practice and experience. With this information as background, the study then examines five themes that emerged from the interview data: identity; social and political activism; participation and organization; power; and resistance and independence. The women\u27s voices are then brought forward once more in a final section entitled reflections. The final chapter of the study looks at the implications of the knowledge brought forward from the women\u27s voices, and posits some initial thinking regarding gender issues in popular education, as well as the potential for further research and study