TY - JOUR
T1 - Agricultural education
T2 - Gender identity and knowledge exchange
AU - Trauger, Amy
AU - Sachs, Carolyn Elizabeth
AU - Barbercheck, Mary Ellen
AU - Kiernan, Nancy Ellen
AU - Brasier, Kathryn Jo
AU - Findeis, Jill
PY - 2008/10/1
Y1 - 2008/10/1
N2 - Women farmers are underserved in agricultural education and technical assistance. Long held social constructions of farming women as 'farmwives' and in some cases 'the bookkeepers' rather than farmers or decision-makers influence the direction of most educational programming delivered through extension programs in land-grant universities in the United States. Consequently, many women farmers generally view these spaces as hostile, rather than helpful environments. This paper uses the agricultural training framework developed by Liepins and Schick (1998) to analyze our research on developing educational programming for women farmers. We conducted five focus groups with members of the Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network (PA-WAgN) to better understand women farmers' needs for education. Women farmers reported the kinds of knowledge and information they want, in what kinds of contexts, and through what means of communication. We adapt and extend the original theoretical framework developed by Liepins and Schick to incorporate the seriality of women's identities, their discourses of embodiment and the agency granted to them through social networks. Through a presentation of the results of these focus groups, we discuss both the relevance of gender to agricultural education and the importance of the network model in providing education to women farmers.
AB - Women farmers are underserved in agricultural education and technical assistance. Long held social constructions of farming women as 'farmwives' and in some cases 'the bookkeepers' rather than farmers or decision-makers influence the direction of most educational programming delivered through extension programs in land-grant universities in the United States. Consequently, many women farmers generally view these spaces as hostile, rather than helpful environments. This paper uses the agricultural training framework developed by Liepins and Schick (1998) to analyze our research on developing educational programming for women farmers. We conducted five focus groups with members of the Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network (PA-WAgN) to better understand women farmers' needs for education. Women farmers reported the kinds of knowledge and information they want, in what kinds of contexts, and through what means of communication. We adapt and extend the original theoretical framework developed by Liepins and Schick to incorporate the seriality of women's identities, their discourses of embodiment and the agency granted to them through social networks. Through a presentation of the results of these focus groups, we discuss both the relevance of gender to agricultural education and the importance of the network model in providing education to women farmers.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2008.03.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2008.03.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:50949134195
VL - 24
SP - 432
EP - 439
JO - Journal of Rural Studies
JF - Journal of Rural Studies
SN - 0743-0167
IS - 4
ER -