Constructing a professional: gendered knowledge in the (self-)positioning of skin and spa therapy students

Abstract

The self-archived postprint version of this journal article is available at Linköping University Institutional Repository (DiVA): http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-143647 N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original publication. This is an electronic version of an article published in: Bredlöv, E., (2017), Constructing a professional: gendered knowledge in the (self-)positioning of skin and spa therapy students, Gender and Education, 29 (7) Constructing a professional: Gendered knowledge in the (self-)positioning of skin and spa therapy students AbstractThis study outlines the self-positioning of skin and spa therapy students. More specifically, it focuses how they position themselves as professionals in terms of knowledge, and how gender is at play throughout this process. Drawing on a poststructural approach, inspired by Foucault and feminist theory, regularities of description and self-description were analyzed. This approach provides analytical tools for analyzing how people engage with discourse in this micro-context of education and training, and feminist theory enables an understanding of how gender relations of power emerge. The material consists of interview transcripts derived from interviews with twenty skin and spa therapy students. The study shows how a scientific and caring professional emerges, producing gender relations as effects of power. Furthermore, a caring discourse is ultimately mobilized and a stereotyped image of the beauty industry is shown to govern students' self-positioning, reproducing norms of gender and consumption.

Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training

“…This appears to be partly rooted in a scientific discourse of the learning content, and partly in the feminine ideal of a caring discourse. The use of a scientific discourse to self-position in a predominantly feminine vocation is in line with findings by Bredlöv (2017). We also found that boys tended to position themselves at some distance from the female caring discourse in this setting, and relied more than girls on the scientific discourse.…”

“…The most striking conclusion of this study is that a caring discourse can be entwined, for female students, not only with discourses and activities related to consumption work and relational work with people, but also those related to working with machines. This extends previous findings that a caring discourse is important in VET contexts associated with consumption rather than production, including spa and skin therapy (Bredlöv 2017) and HSC (Rehn and Eliasson 2015). The relatively strong emphasis on being a female student and becoming a female worker through being and becoming (cf.…”

“…In HSC education, for example, teachers reportedly convey a perception that important expertise for assistant nurse students includes an ability to express a caring feminine disposition, in which empathy and communication are core elements (Rehn and Eliasson 2015). Similarly, skin and therapy students mobilise a caring discourse in their talk about their vocational identity according to Bredlöv (2017). A caring discourse can also be used to understand how students are met by teachers.…”

“…Consequently, VET students have to negotiate positions and identities in relation to dominant discourses of conventionally gendered environments. For example, Bredlöv (2017; found that a scientific discourse is a resource in the professional education of 'skin and therapy' students, but relational and caring elements of wider discourses of femininity strongly influence the students' production as professionals. Similarly, Brockmann (2010) found that the (male) social identity of motor vehicle maintenance shaped the learning culture in a vehicle maintenance VET programme.…”