Clem Herman

Learners in transition: the use of ePortfolios for women returners to science, engineering and technology

In 2002 the UK Government produced a report highlighting the problems faced by women returning to employment in science, engineering and technology (SET) after a career break. In response to this report, a national strategy was developed, with funding from the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry and the European Social Fund ‘Equal’ Programme, to address the issues highlighted by the report. One of the key parts of the strategy was the creation of a short (100 hours), online course by the Open University (UK) aimed at supporting and empowering women who were returning to employment in SET after a break. An ePortfolio forms an integral part of the course experience. This paper reports the experiences of the first group of 100 women who participated in this course. A range of data sources have been used to analyse the responses of participants to the course including questionnaires, emailed ‘critical incident’ narratives, discussion board postings and telephone interviews. This paper draws on that evaluation research to discuss the perceptions that women scientists, engineers and technologists had about the usefulness of personal/professional development planning (PDP) and an ePortfolio in helping them re‐enter employment, and their intentions to use it in future. Some of these findings can be generalised to other groups (either employed or not) who might benefit from a similar approach, i.e. developing an ePortfolio through a set of structured and guided e‐learning activities.

Patterns of online networking for women’s career development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how women working in science, engineering and technology use online networking, for career and professional development purposes.Design/methodology/approach – A combined qualitative and quantitative approach is taken, using interviews for the first phase of the research and online surveys for the second. The findings are discussed and presented with reference to theories on career development and in the context of recent work on womens networks and online social networking.Findings – The paper defines a typology of online networks and identifies the motives women have for engaging with the different types. The data imply that women are successfully using online networks to find support, advice and collaboration from women working in similar environments. However, the data only identify a few examples where the use of online networks has led to a specific new job opportunity.Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited by the samples us...

Returning to STEM: gendered factors affecting employability for mature women students

This paper adds to current discourses around employability by arguing for an explicit recognition of gender, in particular in relation to women’s employment in male-dominated sectors such as science, engineering and technology. This is not limited to young first-time graduates but continues and evolves throughout the life course. Mature women students, who are returning after career breaks, face a number of barriers in re-entering such employment sectors. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of women graduates in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, who participated in a UK government-funded online programme aimed at supporting them to return to work, the paper examines three gendered factors identified as being of particular influence on outcomes – gender role normativity, locality and mobility, and structural and institutional barriers. The paper concludes by identifying strategies deployed by those that successfully returned to employment, including retraining, networking and doing unpaid or low-paid work.

From visions to reality: changing women's perspectives at the village hall

From the introduction: The experiences of the Womens Electronic Village Hall (WEVH) a community based ICT access project based in the British city of Manchester present an illustration of how dominant gender-technology discourses have been successfully challenged within a women only training environment. This paper draws on my own experience as one of the founders and the Director of the WEVH for eight years. The WEVH was one of the very first ICT access centres in Britain, mad occupied a unique position, acting as a model for other womens ICT initiatives and influencing the development and proliferation of other community based ICT initiatives over the past decade. There were two main motivating forces behind the setting up of the WEVH - the first was a shared vision of the potential for ICTs/telematics to be used as a tool to combat social exclusion and the second was a feminist commitment to redressing the inequalities and under-representation of women in computing. Both these perspectives formed an important backdrop to the growth and development of the organisation and continue to inform its strategic plans.

Still a gendered technology? Issues in teaching information and communication technologies at the UK Open University

Over the last 5 years the Faculty of Technology of the UK Open University has redesigned most of its courses in the information and communication technologies. This paper reviews some of the issues, the changes made and what has been achieved. The combination of changes to content, pedagogy and marketing appears to have made the new generation of courses significantly more attractive to women--although it is difficult to disentangle the effects of the various changes.

Innovatory Educational Models for Women Returners in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions

Women returning to work after a break have been the target of programmes and initiatives within the adult and higher education sectors for many years: they have also been the focus of government concern at times of skills shortages. Often drawing on feminist principles and pedagogies , such initiatives have generally aimed to empower women and raise their awareness of gender issues at the same time as offering skills and training in preparation for employment (Coats 1996; Ellen and Herman 2005; Phipps 2008). The initiative discussed in this chapter has its roots in these traditions but, by using an online environment, the government has been able to offer a new programme to a wider and more diversely distributed target group, as well as focussing on the needs of a specific group: women already qualified in Science , Engineering or Technology (SET) subject areas.

Combining feminist pedagogy and transactional distance to create gender-sensitive technology-enhanced learning

ABSTRACT In this paper, we argue for a new synthesis of two pedagogic theories: feminist pedagogy and transactional distance, which explain why and how distance education has been such a positive system for women in a national distance learning university. We illustrate this with examples of positive action initiatives for women. The concept of transactional distance allows us to explore distance as a form of psychological and communication space, not simply of geographical distance. Feminist pedagogy, on the other hand, has recognised the importance of gender in structuring disciplines as well as teaching strategies. Both theories implicitly position the face-to-face classroom as the ideal learning environment, with the implication that distance learning has to produce a deficient environment. We argue that the evidence for women does not support this and present examples of feminist distance learning provision that has offered successful technology-enhanced learning and educational opportunities.

ICT Changes Everything! But Who Changes ICT?

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a changing power and digitalization is gradually changing society in all aspects of life. Across the western world, men are in majority in the ICT industry, thus, the computer programs that change “everything” are most often made by men. Unless questioned, this male dominance can be perceived as a “norm” and becomes invisible. Against this background, this paper will provide three examples of how a feminist gaze can contribute to raise important questions and produce an awareness of how exclusion mechanisms have produce a highly homosocial tendency in design of ICT systems in the western world.