Book Review: Feminism in Community: Adult Education for Transformation by English, L. M., & Irving, C. J.

Abstract

English, L. M., & Irving, C. J. (2015). Feminism in Community: Education for Transformation. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Sense Publishers. 218 pp. ISBN: 978-9463002004 (paperback) Feminism in Community (2015) takes a wide-ranging look at feminism and adult education. Throughout the book, English and Irving explore these two topics as separate disciplines, as well as intersecting fields. authors use Feminism in Community as a vehicle to present a sample of feminist organizations across the globe, including those in the fields of performing arts, public health, and religion, to emphasize why feminism is important, how it is operationalized in several different contexts, and ways in which feminist leaders have approached adult education. Examples include a generic description of how funding may be a challenge for any feminist organization to web-based resources like Wikipedia edit-a-thons to increase the representation of women's history on web-based databases. Chapter 1 opens with the Introduction, while Chapter 2 Organizations was extremely attentive to feminism exercised within social and political organizations. Chapter 3 Adult Health For With Women focuses on the topic of health education as a tenet of adult education. While Chapters 4 through 7 explore feminism in the context of such areas as art, religion, and research; Chapters 8 through 12 present discussions of the impact of feminism and adult education within various settings, including classrooms and communities. Chapter 8, Critical Feminist Pedagogy, extends beyond simply teaching about feminism to inform the reader of ways in which feminist pedagogy is created, enacted, and evaluated. Chapter 9, Social Transformative Learning and Women, not only addresses teaching with a feminist approach but also provides examples of scholars within the field equipping the reader with tools to continue researching the topic if desired. Chapter 10, Power, Resistance and Informal Learning, discusses the results of a research project conducted by the authors. Through the use of interviews, the authors analyzed data collected from 16 women serving in leadership roles to address how the participants learned about feminism, negotiate levels of power within their respective organizations, and what they have learned from other women. Chapter 11, The Nexus of Policy, Practice and Payment, presents discussions on intersectionality, examples from a global perspective, and implications for practitioners. …