Vanessa Sheared - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Vanessa Sheared
International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 2014
Adult education scholarship has been racialized through the lens of Eurocentric theory and resear... more Adult education scholarship has been racialized through the lens of Eurocentric theory and research. Theoretical paradigms such as Africentrism struggle to gain academic legitimacy as discourses of transformative learning, critical thinking and self-direction - all grounded in the European Enlightenment tradition of the individual pursuit of rational self-knowledge - hold sway. This article reviews the way that repressive tolerance serves to broaden the field of adult education by including racially based perspectives on adult learning, yet simultaneously ensures that they are always seen as an exotic alternative to what is clearly the mainstream Eurocentric perspective. It reviews the way that discourses of criticality can be reinterpreted from the perspective of the African American lifeworld and explores in detail the work of Lucius T. Outlaw Jr. and Cornel West. Both scholars draw partly from the tradition of European critical theory in their attempts to use its central analytic...
A study focused on the effect of welfare reform legislation on literacy or social service provide... more A study focused on the effect of welfare reform legislation on literacy or social service providers and families participating in the programs. Program staff and participants in Wisconsin and California were surveyed and interviewed to determine how welfare reform impacted what they do programmatically or personally. Findings indicated receipt of public assistance has had an enormous impact on the ways in which these family units are viewed or treated in American society, with media, legislative body, and public opinion being used to castigate them for being in need of assistance. In states like Wisconsin, programs and counties took the position that no one could receive public assistance and developed a program of services that allows the social welfare office to give them medical and food subsistence, assistance finding work, and help maintaining a job; but they cannot just receive assistance. In California, programs were tailored to focus on shortterm training leading to work with required performance of community work or service to continue receiving public assistance. These two compelling factors were uncovered: the rhetoric about those on welfare and how they abuse or misuse funds has led to development of programs that penalize, not aid, families in poverty; and there are conflicting goals between the educational and training realities of those receiving welfare and those engaged in service implementation. (Contains 21 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Women of color discuss issues of race in a teaching and learning context. In doing so we will inc... more Women of color discuss issues of race in a teaching and learning context. In doing so we will include discussion of the differences in the philosophical approaches to teaching about race in academe and the barriers encountered in the classroom. As women of color engaged in teaching courses on race and gender, focus on these topics has caused feelings of trepidation, frustration and excitement not only for us as educators, but for our students as well. When we as women of color engage in teaching courses on multiculturalism, equity, social justice, culture, race and gender we often encounter resistance by Euro-Americans. While Euro-Americans tend to act out of resistance, students of color have traditionally responded fully in the dialogue -sharing experiences and ideas or they have grown silent. In as much as we believe that institutions of higher education should allow people to reflect upon and engage in discussions about social inequities and injustices due to racism and sexism, ...
Race, as most social scientist would argue, is socially constructed, and from that premise there ... more Race, as most social scientist would argue, is socially constructed, and from that premise there are those who would argue that since it is socially constructed, it isn’t real and therefore why do we even talk about it. However rather than going with that premise, we would argue that given that it is socially constructed, the fact that we are social beings and that we have been socialized to recognize the color of another’s skin, then it matters, and we need to talk about it. As women scholars in the field of adult education two African Ameripean women, one Asian Ameripean woman and one Ameripean woman (Colin, 1994) we have been engaged in conversations about how we teach and work with our colleagues and our students about the role of race and gender in our professional, social and personal lives. The metaphor, “all American apple pie or chocolate sundae” captures that paradox for us. The purpose of this paper and this session will be for us to engage in a dialogue, real conversatio...
Angela Miles, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Phyllis Cunningham, Northern Ill... more Angela Miles, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Phyllis Cunningham, Northern Illinois University, USA Miriam Zukas, University of Leeds, UK Kamla Bhasin, FAO South Asia Program, India Jean Graveline, Brandon University, Canada Mechthild Hart, DePaul University, USA Vanessa Sheared, San Francisco State University, USA Jane Thompson, Ruskin College, UK and Sally Westwood, University of Leicester, UK
Six graduate students were interviewed and focus was given to how the education they received imp... more Six graduate students were interviewed and focus was given to how the education they received impacted the ways in which they addressed issues of power and control in their own classrooms. Awareness of unequal power structures in the classroom, written words matter, lived experiences and moving from theory to practice were themes that emerged from the data. Introduction The literature is replete with examples of the ways in which power relationships are formulated between teachers and students and among students with other students. The literature offers critical analyses of domination, oppression, and hegemony in the context of the classroom environment (Freire, 1970; Ellsworth, 1992, Welton, 1995), feminist pedagogy (Tisdell, 1993), African-centered or race based analyses, postmodern perspectives (Collins, 1994; Sheared, 1994, ), and multicultural education approaches (Sleeter, 1995), as well as, addresses identity politics, silencing, and making space (Sheared and Sissel, 2001). ...
Choice Reviews Online, 2002
... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Making space: merging theory and practice ... more ... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Making space: merging theory and practice in adult education/edited by Vanessa Sheared and Peggy A ... One lesson seems clear: gatekeeping as a conscious or unconscious act was not in the best interests of the Association. ...
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1994
Marginalization occurs when one person5 views are valued and voiced at the sociopolitical and his... more Marginalization occurs when one person5 views are valued and voiced at the sociopolitical and historical expense of others. Understanding the individual5 polyrhythmic reality gives us a way ofgiving voice to the multiple and varied realitiesfound in the classroom.
According to Knowles (1980), adults come to the learning environment when they are ready. His con... more According to Knowles (1980), adults come to the learning environment when they are ready. His concept of andragogy is based on these assumptions: changes in self-concept, the role of experience, readiness to learn, and orientation to learning. Increasing concern has been placed upon the need to address the multiple cultural needs of learners and workers in all settings. Hill-Collins (1990) describes a research methodology aimed at collecting and analyzing data from marginalized persons. This Africentric feminist epistemology attempts to provide a medium through which one's interpretation of behavior and thought is grounded in the history, culture, economics, race, gender; language, and religion of those involved in the research. This perspective emphasizes the intersection of multiple, polyrhythmic realities. Polyrhythms are the multiple rhythms that flow and course through one's being. A model has been developed that represents the intersecting polyrhythmic realities based upon the Africentric feminist deconstruction of an individual's world view. Four assumptions formulate the bases for acknowledging one's polyrhythmic realities within the learning environment: concrete experience as the criterion of meaning, dialogue as the basis for assessing knowledge claims, an ethic of caring, and an ethic of personal accountability. These assumptions provide the framework for giving voice. The teacher moves from the center into the margin and gives students an opportunity to share their understandings through dialogue. (Contains 12 references.) (YLB)
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1999
... Barkeley-Brown, E. African American Women's Quilting. A Framework for Conceptu-aliz... more ... Barkeley-Brown, E. African American Women's Quilting. A Framework for Conceptu-alizing and Teaching African American Women's History. In M. Malson, E. Mudimbe-Boyi, JO Barr, and M. Wyer (eds.), Black Women in America: Social Sci-ence Perspectives. ...
International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 2014
Adult education scholarship has been racialized through the lens of Eurocentric theory and resear... more Adult education scholarship has been racialized through the lens of Eurocentric theory and research. Theoretical paradigms such as Africentrism struggle to gain academic legitimacy as discourses of transformative learning, critical thinking and self-direction - all grounded in the European Enlightenment tradition of the individual pursuit of rational self-knowledge - hold sway. This article reviews the way that repressive tolerance serves to broaden the field of adult education by including racially based perspectives on adult learning, yet simultaneously ensures that they are always seen as an exotic alternative to what is clearly the mainstream Eurocentric perspective. It reviews the way that discourses of criticality can be reinterpreted from the perspective of the African American lifeworld and explores in detail the work of Lucius T. Outlaw Jr. and Cornel West. Both scholars draw partly from the tradition of European critical theory in their attempts to use its central analytic...
A study focused on the effect of welfare reform legislation on literacy or social service provide... more A study focused on the effect of welfare reform legislation on literacy or social service providers and families participating in the programs. Program staff and participants in Wisconsin and California were surveyed and interviewed to determine how welfare reform impacted what they do programmatically or personally. Findings indicated receipt of public assistance has had an enormous impact on the ways in which these family units are viewed or treated in American society, with media, legislative body, and public opinion being used to castigate them for being in need of assistance. In states like Wisconsin, programs and counties took the position that no one could receive public assistance and developed a program of services that allows the social welfare office to give them medical and food subsistence, assistance finding work, and help maintaining a job; but they cannot just receive assistance. In California, programs were tailored to focus on shortterm training leading to work with required performance of community work or service to continue receiving public assistance. These two compelling factors were uncovered: the rhetoric about those on welfare and how they abuse or misuse funds has led to development of programs that penalize, not aid, families in poverty; and there are conflicting goals between the educational and training realities of those receiving welfare and those engaged in service implementation. (Contains 21 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Race, Gender, and Welfare Reform, 2021
Women of color discuss issues of race in a teaching and learning context. In doing so we will inc... more Women of color discuss issues of race in a teaching and learning context. In doing so we will include discussion of the differences in the philosophical approaches to teaching about race in academe and the barriers encountered in the classroom. As women of color engaged in teaching courses on race and gender, focus on these topics has caused feelings of trepidation, frustration and excitement not only for us as educators, but for our students as well. When we as women of color engage in teaching courses on multiculturalism, equity, social justice, culture, race and gender we often encounter resistance by Euro-Americans. While Euro-Americans tend to act out of resistance, students of color have traditionally responded fully in the dialogue -sharing experiences and ideas or they have grown silent. In as much as we believe that institutions of higher education should allow people to reflect upon and engage in discussions about social inequities and injustices due to racism and sexism, ...
Race, as most social scientist would argue, is socially constructed, and from that premise there ... more Race, as most social scientist would argue, is socially constructed, and from that premise there are those who would argue that since it is socially constructed, it isn’t real and therefore why do we even talk about it. However rather than going with that premise, we would argue that given that it is socially constructed, the fact that we are social beings and that we have been socialized to recognize the color of another’s skin, then it matters, and we need to talk about it. As women scholars in the field of adult education two African Ameripean women, one Asian Ameripean woman and one Ameripean woman (Colin, 1994) we have been engaged in conversations about how we teach and work with our colleagues and our students about the role of race and gender in our professional, social and personal lives. The metaphor, “all American apple pie or chocolate sundae” captures that paradox for us. The purpose of this paper and this session will be for us to engage in a dialogue, real conversatio...
Angela Miles, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Phyllis Cunningham, Northern Ill... more Angela Miles, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Phyllis Cunningham, Northern Illinois University, USA Miriam Zukas, University of Leeds, UK Kamla Bhasin, FAO South Asia Program, India Jean Graveline, Brandon University, Canada Mechthild Hart, DePaul University, USA Vanessa Sheared, San Francisco State University, USA Jane Thompson, Ruskin College, UK and Sally Westwood, University of Leicester, UK
Six graduate students were interviewed and focus was given to how the education they received imp... more Six graduate students were interviewed and focus was given to how the education they received impacted the ways in which they addressed issues of power and control in their own classrooms. Awareness of unequal power structures in the classroom, written words matter, lived experiences and moving from theory to practice were themes that emerged from the data. Introduction The literature is replete with examples of the ways in which power relationships are formulated between teachers and students and among students with other students. The literature offers critical analyses of domination, oppression, and hegemony in the context of the classroom environment (Freire, 1970; Ellsworth, 1992, Welton, 1995), feminist pedagogy (Tisdell, 1993), African-centered or race based analyses, postmodern perspectives (Collins, 1994; Sheared, 1994, ), and multicultural education approaches (Sleeter, 1995), as well as, addresses identity politics, silencing, and making space (Sheared and Sissel, 2001). ...
Choice Reviews Online, 2002
... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Making space: merging theory and practice ... more ... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Making space: merging theory and practice in adult education/edited by Vanessa Sheared and Peggy A ... One lesson seems clear: gatekeeping as a conscious or unconscious act was not in the best interests of the Association. ...
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1994
Marginalization occurs when one person5 views are valued and voiced at the sociopolitical and his... more Marginalization occurs when one person5 views are valued and voiced at the sociopolitical and historical expense of others. Understanding the individual5 polyrhythmic reality gives us a way ofgiving voice to the multiple and varied realitiesfound in the classroom.
According to Knowles (1980), adults come to the learning environment when they are ready. His con... more According to Knowles (1980), adults come to the learning environment when they are ready. His concept of andragogy is based on these assumptions: changes in self-concept, the role of experience, readiness to learn, and orientation to learning. Increasing concern has been placed upon the need to address the multiple cultural needs of learners and workers in all settings. Hill-Collins (1990) describes a research methodology aimed at collecting and analyzing data from marginalized persons. This Africentric feminist epistemology attempts to provide a medium through which one's interpretation of behavior and thought is grounded in the history, culture, economics, race, gender; language, and religion of those involved in the research. This perspective emphasizes the intersection of multiple, polyrhythmic realities. Polyrhythms are the multiple rhythms that flow and course through one's being. A model has been developed that represents the intersecting polyrhythmic realities based upon the Africentric feminist deconstruction of an individual's world view. Four assumptions formulate the bases for acknowledging one's polyrhythmic realities within the learning environment: concrete experience as the criterion of meaning, dialogue as the basis for assessing knowledge claims, an ethic of caring, and an ethic of personal accountability. These assumptions provide the framework for giving voice. The teacher moves from the center into the margin and gives students an opportunity to share their understandings through dialogue. (Contains 12 references.) (YLB)
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1999
... Barkeley-Brown, E. African American Women's Quilting. A Framework for Conceptu-aliz... more ... Barkeley-Brown, E. African American Women's Quilting. A Framework for Conceptu-alizing and Teaching African American Women's History. In M. Malson, E. Mudimbe-Boyi, JO Barr, and M. Wyer (eds.), Black Women in America: Social Sci-ence Perspectives. ...