Nancy Taber

Institutional ethnography, autoethnography, and narrative: an argument for incorporating multiple methodologies

In this article, I discuss the methodological issues arising from both my research aims and my research context of a western national defence force. First, I discuss the uniqueness of my research context and the issues that arise when organizational access is required from a hierarchical government institution. Second, I discuss the main tenets of institutional ethnography (IE) as developed by Dorothy Smith, exploring how it was ideal for my research at the same time as it presented specific methodological challenges. Third, I explain how I overcame these challenges by using autoethnography and narrative as methods to obtain entry-level IE data. I argue that research methodologies are constantly evolving. Researchers must continually push methodological boundaries in order to address research questions that cannot be explored with traditional methods.

Learning how to be a woman in the Canadian Forces/unlearning it through feminism: an autoethnography of my learning journey A preliminary version of this paper was presented as part of a panel discussion at the Atlantic Regional Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education (CASAE) 2002 conference.

Gender plays a significant role in the experiences of workers within organizations. This is particularly true for women in non-traditional roles as they constantly struggle with gender barriers that are so ensconced in certain organizations and in society as to be accepted without question. Using an autoethnographical account, I explore the implications of my experience as a woman in the non-traditional role of a military member. First, I will discuss the importance of speaking from a first-hand, subjective position, and will briefly explore how we learn to be men and women through socialization processes in current western society. Then I will focus on how I learned to be a military member in a male organization and will examine how womens bodies and emotions separate women from men. I conclude with a discussion of how learning about feminist theories provoked me to begin to make connections between my experience and larger societal issues that had previously been invisible to me.

Emergency response: Elearning for paramedics and firefighters

This article is based on an innovative research project with academics, software developers, and organizational pilot sites to design and develop elearning software for an emergency response simulation with supporting collaborative tools. In particular, this article focuses on the research that the author has conducted to provide the theoretical foundations for the project. After discussing the unique characteristics of the SIMergency project, the author provides a critical applied analysis of learning principles directly related to simulation and gaming; stresses the importance of balancing virtual methods with face-to-face interaction; and examines design principles that place learning before technology in an emergency response organizational context. This research, although concentrating on paramedics and firefighters, is transferable to other organizations, and it highlights the importance of collaborative learning. It also emphasizes the crucial use of simulations based on real life for preparing people to deal with stressful and challenging situations in their work.

Issues of Exceptionality, Gender, and Power: Exploring Canadian Children's Award-Winning Literature.

This article explores the gendered ways in which issues of ability and exceptionality are presented in Governor-General award-winning Canadian children’s literature. In much of contemporary feminist thought, there is a strong focus on intersecting oppressions with gender as a central analytic lens. However, ability is still largely absent. Our aim is to bring ability to the forefront in an analysis of gendered representations in children’s literature. We therefore discuss gender, inclusion, and children’s fiction; detail our use of feminist discourse analysis; and present findings from our literature analysis, making connections to societal discourses of inclusion and gender. We conclude that educators must assist students in becoming aware of gendered and abled discourses, discussing their meanings, and deconstructing their hegemonic ideals. Without such critical discussions, the marginalisation of girls and individuals with exceptionalities will continue to be pervasive in children’s literature and, by extension, society.

‘You better not get pregnant while you’re here’: tensions between masculinities and femininities in military communities of practice

Using a life history approach, this article explores the ways in which women in the military who are also mothers learn to embody various masculinities and femininities as they negotiate workplace gender processes. Complex intersections of gendered communities of practice result in the participants’ learning to variously understand, accept, shape and/or resist interlinked personal, professional and organizational gendered discourses. First, I discuss theories of learning in communities of masculinity and femininity practice, exploring how they connect to the military context. Second, I explain how life history methodology enables an examination of participant learning through personal, organizational and societal constructs. Third, I detail the findings as they relate to the complex ways in which women in the military learn to embody various masculinities and femininities as they negotiate workplace gender processes. Last, I conclude that participants transgressed and reinforced certain boundaries between various military communities of masculinity and femininity.

Exploring the interconnections between adult education, militarism, and gender: implications for our field

This article reviews and expands on two books that focus on womens experiences of war and militarism, written from interdisciplinary perspectives based on womens studies, political science and international relations. The article explores the main tenets of militarism, neoliberalism and gender oppression as discussed in the books, adding a learning lens to the analysis. It focuses on the importance of engaging with the concept of militarism in order to explore its interactions with everyday learning and adult education.

Social Care in Adult Education: Resisting a Marketplace Agenda.

This article describes a research study about the experiences of adult educators in which the stories of three of the participants were central in exploring the issue of social care in adult education. It proposes that the adult educators with a social care orientation in this study acknowledge the importance of, and work to provide for, human needs (e.g., food, shelter, and belonging), care (working from an ethical affective orientation as opposed to a rational justice orientation), and social justice (a power analysis focusing on marginalization and oppression in a capitalist society).

Beginning with the Self to Critique the Social: Critical Researchers as Whole Beings

In this chapter, I argue for the importance of problematizing researcher subjectivity using an analytic autoethnographic lens in critical social research, from a feminist perspective. The aim is not to use autoethnography as a methodology per se, but to use autoethnography as a theory and a method as an (iterative) starting point to interrogate social ruling relations. In much the same way that Dorothy Smith (2005) explains that institutional ethnography is not only a methodology but is a “sociology for people” (p. 220), I view autoethnography as a lens through which researchers can connect their own everyday lives to the various contexts of their research in order to engage in a societal critique.

Universities as inclusive learning organizations for women?: Considering the role of women in faculty and leadership roles in academe

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of the learning organization, first discussed by Senge (1990), to determine if it can work as a model in the higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach Using a critical feminist framework, this paper assesses the possibilities and challenges of viewing universities as inclusive learning organizations, with a particular focus on women in academic faculty and leadership roles. Findings It argues that, ultimately, the impact of neoliberal values and underlying systemic structures that privilege male scholars need to be challenged through shifts in policies and practices to address ongoing issues of gender inequality in higher education. Originality/value The paper draws attention to the need to bring a critical feminist lens to an analysis of the concept of the learning organization if it is to be perceived as having merit in the higher education sector.

Pedagogical Discourses of Gender, Peace, and Equality: Jane Addams Children's Book Awards.

This article discusses a feminist critical discourse analysis research project of award-winning books of the Jane Addams Peace Association. Children’s books carry societal messages that are gendered, raced, and classed, with award-winning books carrying an additional message of exceptionality as they are viewed as deserving of attention. Thus, the discourses they circulate are important points of analysis. This research, using data from the Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards (focusing on books for older children – young adult literature), takes a feminist antimilitarist perspective to explore the sociocultural implications of children’s literature for education and learning. I examine research with respect to award-winning literature, define my theoretical framework of feminist antimilitarism, explain my methodology of feminist discourse analysis, and detail my findings. I conclude that the awards as a whole function pedagogically to define conflict in ways that privilege colonial discourses, with women represented in essentialist ways and inequality perceived as absent in the contemporary West.