Cristina C. Vieira

Dilemmas of girls and women in engineering: a study in Portugal

The reason that girls and women withdraw from science and technology education and careers has been a universal concern in the social sciences. This study investigated how gendered constructions of identity are translated into the barriers and fears that female students and professional women experience in decision-making about their careers. We conducted interviews with 63 girls and 39 women in academic and professional engineering careers, focusing on their interpersonal relationships with boys and men in their school and occupational engineering settings, respectively. Participant discourse highlighted the difficulties women face when managing the antagonistic discourses of femininity and masculinity in a social environment in which they are frequently forced to submit to hegemonic masculinity. The consequences of women’s differing discourses about the “masculine world” and the “feminine world” are discussed, and some strategies for creating more equalitarian relational environments in school and work settings are discussed.

Cyberbullying in Portuguese Schools: Prevalence and Characteristics

ABSTRACT This study examined the extent and nature of cyberbullying in 23 Portuguese schools. A sample of 3,525 sixth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students completed a self-response questionnaire assessing their perceptions and experiences of cyberbullying. The findings showed that 7.6% of students have been victimized, and 3.9% have bullied others at least once over the last year. The incidences of victimization were higher for females and for the older students. In contrast, more boys reported having bullied others in the eleventh grade. The most frequent medium of cyberbullying was via websites, whilst sending offensive messages was the most widely reported type of behavior. Telling someone about cyberbullying is among the most frequent coping strategies used by cybervictims, who usually chose to tell their friends rather than adults. Implications of these findings for students, schools, and parents are discussed.

Adolescent cybervictimization – Who they turn to and their perceived school climate

The purpose of this study was to understand how adolescent cybervictims perceive their school climate and whether telling school community members, such as teachers, play a significant role in these perceptions. Another objective was to understand whether age and gender played a significant role in the relation between whom cybervictims told and their perceived school climate. The Cybervictims Scale for Adolescents and Children and the Perceived School Climate Scale were applied to 3525 Portuguese students of whom 218 were cybervictims attending 6th, 8th, and 11th grades. Results showed that even though adolescent cybervictims reported cybervictimization more to friends and parents, those who told teachers about their experience, tended to report more positive perceptions of their school climate. Gender and age did not play a significant role in the relationship between cybervictimization and perceived school climate. Implications of the findings are discussed with regards to the role of teachers and in-service training in preventing cyberbullying.

Vivências e percepções do estágio curricular em Educação de Adultos: a perspectiva dos alunos

O presente estudo teve como objectivo investigar as vivencias e percepcoes dos estagiarios de Educacao de Adultos, ao longo de um ano curricular, relativamente aos sentimentos dominantes, as fontes de apoio, as dificuldades/obstaculos enfrentados, bem como aos recursos pessoais e externos por si percebidos. Adicionalmente, pretendeu-se determinar se o ano de estagio contribui para aumentar a capacidade para a autodireccao da aprendizagem. Para o efeito, utilizou-se um plano de investigacao em que se combinaram metodologias qualitativas e quantitativas, recorrendo-se a uma amostra de 19 alunos da Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciencias da Educacao da Universidade e Coimbra. A nivel dos principais resultados obtidos, identificou-se uma sucessao de tres fases relativamente distintas durante o estagio, as quais se revelaram associadas a sentimentos, dificuldades e recursos especificos. No que respeita a segunda questao em estudo, embora se tenha verificado uma tendencia para o aumento da autodireccao na aprendizagem, os resultados alcancados revelaram-se inconclusivos.

Gender sensitive adult education: critical perspective

This article aims to foster a reflection on the meaning of gender in adults’ learning, considering gender as a social order that is entrenched in daily rela‐ tions, no matter the domain of life under analyses. As the research shows, it cannot be any longer ignored that being a man or a woman creates a different approach of the learner towards the situation of learning, mainly because formal, informal and non‐formal contexts of learning tend to be congruent with a set of messages based on gender stereotypes that can be prejudicial to the individual’s development. The experiences related to gender influence the way knowledge is acquired, the expectations people make about themselves, the choices of learning subjects and their self‐confidence in learning. The use of gender lenses to deconstruct such learned norms should be included in the field of adult education as a way of promoting (social) subjectivity of contemporary adult learners.

The Value of Informal Learning for Illiterate Older Women Across the Lifespan

The role of informal learning in the construction of individual knowledge of both men and women throughout life is crucial to understand behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and self-images as members of society. This role is particularly compromised for illiterate people who did not have the opportunity to enjoy schooling during youth.

Informal Learning and Gender

In the process of socialization everybody notices a clear dichotomy of femininity – masculinity. On one hand, that dichotomy has adaptive role, because it helps to determine the place and roles in society. On the other hand, it becomes an obstacle in personal development and self-realization.

Promoting active aging inside portuguese residential institucions for the elderly: is there something missing?

Res_eng:The definition of active aging endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 requires from different professionals and institutions a systematic work with people along the process of ageing, involving the promotion of health, the assurance of conditions of security and the offering of opportunities for participation, including learning activities that promote personal development and well-being. Seniors living in residential care homes are not excluded from this definition and it is important to know how these institutions are trying to respond to the challenge launched by the WHO about a decade ago. This chapter is based on an empirical study carried out in eight residential homes for the elderly in the municipality of Coimbra, Portugal, and involved a sample of 146 old people who answered a structured interview protocol. The main objective of this research was to elicit elders’ perceptions about their life in institutions, in order to outline possible changes with the goal of promoting their quality of life in the last years of their life in a context different from their family or their own homes. The focus of our analyses in this chapter is on the elders’ answers about their participation in learning and recreational activities promoted by institutions where they live and also about their self-perceptions about their abilities to learn and to contribute to a dynamic environment inside the institution that goes beyond the ‘assistentialist’ perspective of these entities. Despite the small size of the sample, data showed that there is a long way to go in order to effectively offer opportunities for participation to institutionalized elders, whether it involves experiences of learning and of personal development, or ordinary decisions related to their daily life as individuals and full citizens.

Life sense: ideological context and empirical approach

O sentido da vida tem sido considerado um topico de capital importância por parte da Literatura, da Filosofia e, ultimamente, tambem da ciencia. Depois de descrever o contexto ideologico, em que surgiu a investigacao sobre este tema, o presente artigo da conta das principais tendencias da pesquisa empirica neste dominio, em particular, as que dizem respeito aos modelos de envelhecimento bem sucedido, a gerotranscendencia, a espiritualidade e ao bem-estar. “Va consolacao para ele [Raskolnikov] dizer que, dai a oito anos, ainda so teria trinta e dois e que poderia, entao, recomecar a sua vida. Mas porque viver? Tendo em vista que projectos? Fazer esforcos para que?” (Dostoievski, 1972, Tomo II, p. 393). “– Aqui e quase como na terra para onde vamos – disse ela. – E – respondeu o homem –, mas aqui e um lugar de passagem. E ambos se levantaram e se vestiram” (Andresen, 1970, p. 103). “Nao posso viver sem saber quem sou e com que fim fui lancado a este mundo – dizia ele [Levine] para consigo. E visto que nao poderei chegar a sabe-lo, torna-se-me impossivel viver. No tempo infinito, na infinitude da materia, no espaco infinito forma-se um organismo como uma borbulha, mantem-se por algum tempo, rebenta. Essa borbulha sou eu” (Tolstoi, 1970, p. 857). Julgo pois que o sentido da vida e o mais premente dos assuntos – das interrogacoes” (Camus, s. d., p. 14).