Gender and Education: Towards a Framework for a Critical Analysis of Agricultural Training

Abstract

LTHOUGH THE RESEARCH literature on gender and agriculture originated with early studies conducted at the level of the farm unit, contemporary literature extends debates further to incorporate analyses of gender, identity, subjectivity and power in agricultural communities, industries, law and media recent analysis of Irish agricultural training is an example of this latter scholarship. Using the research literatures on gender and equality of educational opportunity, Shortall argues that education, as a particular instance of wider social and cultural institutions, provides a medium for processes and structures that support different experiences and opportunities for men and women in agriculture. Shortall's analysis is unusual, and important, in that she focuses on agricultural training as a source both of information and status, and as an arena in which the gendering of agriculture is produced and reproduced.In this paper 1 we propose a framework for developing a critical gender analysis of agricultural training. We respond to, and extend, Shortall's analysis of the gendering of agricultural training. Our aim is to develop a theoretical base which supports research and evaluation of gender issues in educational programmes. 2 In particular, we establish three conceptual tools and a framework for analysis which we can apply to our current investigation of agricultural training programmes. 3 To date, analyses of women and agricultural education have emphasized curricula, culture and the organization of farm work as factors supporting male access and participation in training. While this empirical heritage is crucial to our work it also suggests to us that greater attention to certain key concepts would A

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