Othering Processes in Feminist Teaching a Case Study of an Adult Educational Institution Yang, Chia-Ling
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Othering Processes in Feminist Teaching A case study of an adult educational institution Yang, Chia-Ling 2010 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Yang, C-L. (2010). Othering Processes in Feminist Teaching: A case study of an adult educational institution. Lund University. Total number of authors: 1 General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 OTHERING PROCESSES IN FEMINIST TEACHING Othering Processes in Feminist Teaching – A case study of an adult educational institution Chia-Ling Yang Lund Dissertations in Sociology 91 A complete list of publications from the Dept. of Sociology, Lund University, can be found at the end of the book and at www.soc.lu.se/info/publ. copyright © Chia-Ling Yang 2010 gaphic design Kjell E. Eriksson typesetting Ilgot Liljedahl cover design Kuei-Hsien Liao cover picture Astrid Lin printed by Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 2010 ISBN 91-7267-318-4 ISSN 1102-4712 To Women’s Room and TGEEA Contents Acknowledgments 9 Abstract 11 c h a p t e r 1 Welcome, all women! 13 Aims of the study and research questions 14 A story not often told 15 Where my research stands 17 A road map 18 c h a p t e r 2 Researcher’s roles and the research product 19 Methodology and research methods 20 Researcher’s roles 25 Challenges after the fieldwork 33 Conclusion 38 c h a p t e r 3 Theoretical framework 41 Theorizing difference 41 Rethinking inequalities 47 Central concepts 49 Conclusion 52 c h a p t e r 4 The Swedish context 55 Paradoxes of the Swedish welfare state 55 Transitions of the welfare state 56 Difference, education and the welfare state 66 Conclusion 72 c h a p t e r 5 Difference, Women’s Room and the welfare state 75 A folk high school for women and its transition 75 Women, difference and Women’s Room 84 The periphery and the centre 91 Conclusion 96 c h a p t e r 6 Doing difference 99 Portraits of key informants in this chapter 100 ‘Class’ that makes a difference 100 Not suitable for Swedish society? 103 Religious Others in Sweden and in Europe 106 Conclusion 110 c h a p t e r Resistance to definitions 113 Portraits of key informants in this chapter 113 Faulty definitions of migrants’ ‘problems’ 114 Talking back: the praxis of anti-racist teaching 121 Conclusion 127 c h a p t e r Feminism, family and migrant women 129 Selection of feminist teaching episodes and portraits of key informants in this chapter 130 Marriage, the topic of the debate 131 Which/who is in need of challenge and change? 133 The researcher’s role and shared feminist worldview 141 Conclusion 145 c h a p t e r 9 Teaching sexuality 147 Portraits of key informants in this chapter 147 Sexuality in processes of othering 148 Homophobia, heteronormativity and racism 153 Conclusion 162 c h a p t e r 1 0 Understanding Women’s Room 163 Rethinking difference 164 Rethinking feminist educational practices 165 Some last words 166 Reference 167 Appendix I: Abbreviations 181 Appendix II: Descriptions of the fieldwork 182 Appendix III: Interview 183 Appendix IV. Students 184 Acknowledgments At the onset of this research project, I moved between five cities and towns before I settled down in Lund. Over the years spent in these different places, I met mentors and friends who helped me through the processes of this research and writing, as well as those of living abroad. First and most of all, I would like to thank both of my advisors – Diana Mulinari and Johanna Esseveld. Without their support and guidance, I wouldn’t have been able to come to this stage. Diana, I still remember how I was overwhelmed by your brilliant speech when we first met at the ‘Nordic Women’s Movement’ conference in Reykjavik in 2004. This encounter unexpectedly led to your eventual role as my advisor, one who always gave me the warmest understanding, encouragement and inspiration. Joke, thank you for the wonderful gatherings at your place and encour- agement over e-mail. In the last months of thesis revision, I have been grateful to both of you for always putting my draft among your highest priorities, even late into many nights and during the weekends. Wherever I end up next, you represent the ideal feminist scholars that I want to become. I also owe gratitude to Hanna Wikström, Anders Persson, Ali Osman and Gunilla Härnsten of final panel and the research networks in Lund and Malmö: PhD stu- dents from various universities in the ‘Library Group’, my colleagues in the ‘Seminar for Critical Studies’, the ‘Social Policy, Working Life and Global Welfare’ research group in the Department of Sociology, and the ‘Mechanisms of Inequalities’ re- search group under the project of ‘Welfare, Democracy and Citizenship’ in the Social Science Faculty at Lund University by creating a rich, rewarding research environ- ment. My special appreciation also goes out to Maja Sager, Paula Mulinari, Terese Anving, Elisabet Apelmo, Mia Liinason, Sara Eldén, Maria Norstedt, Susanna Lundberg, Kerstin Sandell, Åsa Lundqvist, Anna Engstam, Helena Ledje, Rebecca Selberg, Salla Tuori, Johan Vaide, Marta Kolankiewicz, Anna Isaksson, Irina Schmitt, Martin Berg, Ingrid Jönsson, Kathy Davis, Gunnel Kalsson and the others who not only read and commented on my texts throughout the years, but also provided warm friendship during my years in a foreign country. The Nordic Research School/InterGender Research School in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies played a crucial role in my study for providing insightful courses. Administrators at the Department of Sociology, Centre for Gender Studies and li- brarians at the Social and Behaviour Social Science Library helped sustain me with a comfortable physical and intellectual environment indispensible for my research life; 9 Ilgot Liljedahl at Media-Tryck helped editing my dissertation; they too deserve my thanks. Colleagues at the Department of Sociology and Taiwan students and friends in Sweden enriched my academic and daily life: Sara, Terese, Helena, Elisabet and Maria were many of those whose kindness was invaluable. My last stage of thesis writing could not have been completed without the encouragement from my friends on Facebook, especially Malin Espersson, Agneta Mallén, Maria Nilsen, Charlotta Zettervall; and my team of babysitters and draft readers: Helena and her son Oskar, Elisabet and her family (Per, Sally and Marie), Terese, Yu-Rong, Hsin-Hui, James and Chia-Sui. I also owe gratitude to the universal day care provision in Sweden and the pre-school teachers at Lönneberga, Humlebo and Kulan. Thank Kuei-Hsien, Elisabet, Hui-Wen and Yu-Rong for comments and suggestions on the book cover. And I must thank my homeopathic doctor and the women who taught me how to cook, without whom I would not have survived: Dr. Chiang, Ya-Chun, Annie, Alice and Jill. The space for listing all who helped and accompanied me in these seven years could never be enough. Here are some of the most important not named already: Gunnar Andersson, Mimmi Barmark, Antoinette Hetzler, Eva Schmitz, Anders Neergaard, Kjell Nilsson, Susanna Persson, Tiina Rosenberg, Katarina Sjöberg and the others at Lund University. My friends: Nita Lorimer, I-Hong, Hsin-Hsuan; and my dearest friends: Yu-Mei, Yi-Chia, Yu-Hsuan, Chien-Ling, Li-Fang, Hsiao-Chin, Yu-Hsiu, Wen-Hui, Mei-Hui and others at TGEEA were just as valued from a dis- tance. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Cheng-Li Yang and A-Miau Sung. I have been able to come this far because I know that they always stand by me with their love and support (我要感謝我的父親楊正利及我的母親宋阿妙,因為有他/ 她們全力的支持與無限的愛,才讓我得以飛翔). The kind gaze of my grand- mother, (Beauty Hsu, 許美女) in a picture on my computer screen inspired me to go forward, although I was not able to accompany her at the last time of her life. And Tzung-De and Astrid are my dearest darlings; no words can express my gratitude and love for them. I would like to write these last words to Astrid in Swedish to motivate her to keep her Swedish so she can read what mamma said to her: Astrid, mamma vill tacka dig för ditt sällskap i slutskedet av avhandlingsskrivandet. Tiden med dig hjälpte mig att glömma allt och att få vila på riktigt! Du säger att du vill komma tillbaka till Lund när du blir äldre, då hoppas jag att jag får följa med dig hit. Chia-Ling Yang, Lund, April 2010 10 Abstract Taking its starting point from a critical dialogue with feminist and postcolonial the- ory, this dissertation explores processes of othering in a feminist adult educational institution, Women’s Room, in Sweden.