ABSTRACT
It is in response to immediate problems that people often get their first desire to engage in learning, but the way in which these problems are conceptualised is guided by gendered, ‘raced’ and classed assumptions of what is possible. Similarly, different educational traditions and gendered assumptions guide people’s ideas about what learning is, what its focus should be and how it should be done. Traditionally community education provision has focused on education’s role in improving social conditions for marginalised groups and individuals, by working with people in their own communities (see Tett 2002). The community educator is seen as an agent of social change, who does not separate the process of learning from the intentions of teaching. This educational tradition involves purposeful educational intervention in the interests of social and political change: change towards more justice, equality and democracy. In this chapter I will explore the impact of gender, ‘race’ and class on participation by women in community-based provision within this tradition and the role played by ‘risk’ and desire. I will consider some of the emotional and social factors that can prevent participation in learning and education and those that might encourage it, through an analysis of interviews with students who have participated in community education programmes. My argument is that the intersections of gender, ‘race’ and class shape learning identities and therefore what people regard as acceptable risks, knowledge and desires. In this analysis I agree with Zmroczek who argues that the emphasis should be on moving research ‘away from a preoccupation with personal identity and towards a commitment to political engagement’ (1999: 4). I will illustrate how this analysis is enacted out in practice through an examination of learners in community-based literacies programmes but first an analysis of adult participation in learning and education is presented.
