Making a case for more feminist approaches in quantitative research: How commonly used quantitative approaches in adult education research marginalise and oversimplify diverse and intersectional populations

Lisanne Heilmann

doi:10.3384/rela.2000-7426.3317

Abstract

In contrast to qualitative and theoretical approaches, the mainstream of quantitative research often still finds it difficult to incorporate modern concepts of diversity and intersectionality into its work. This article aims to highlight various aspects in which large studies and their evaluations marginalise or ignore certain parts of the population. In surveying data, large-scale surveys like the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) often not only operate on a binary gender concept but also do not differentiate between a person gender identity and their social gender. In addition, commonly used methods keep unequal distributions invisible. Non-binary people are virtually invisible, unequal benefits for women remain hidden and the intersectional diversity inside the broad gender categories poses challenges to the mainstream of quantitative research in adult education. Therefore, there is a need for a feminist approach to statistics and quantitative research.

Highlights

From city planning to everyday working life to a more and more digitalised world, many elements of this world have been structured and implemented by the people in power and were and are built to reflect their perspectives and to cater to their needs (CriadoPerez, 2019)
After reasoning why visibility and representation in research are relevant for gender equality, this paper presents selected elements and aims to demonstrate aspects where gender in general and perspectives of the non-powerful are made invisible in common quantitative approaches
This paper looks at a few selected aspects of quantitative research in adult education and aims to demonstrate that common methods often marginalise women, keep non-binary people invisible, and disguise that in some cases men and women benefit disproportionally from factors like education

Summary

Introduction

From city planning to everyday working life to a more and more digitalised world, many elements of this world have been structured and implemented by the people in power and were and are built to reflect their perspectives and to cater to their needs (CriadoPerez, 2019). This paper will look more closely into two central aspects of quantitative research: The way we accumulate and survey data and how we subsequently handle and analyse the data To demonstrate these steps, I will utilise the public use files of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Silke Schreiber-Barsch et al raise the question ‘Whose voices matter’ (Schreiber-Barsch, Curdt & Gundlach, 2020) regarding the inclusion of different voices, here especially the voices of people with learning difficulties, in large-scale assessments This seems to be the essential question to ask and looking at the way data is survey and interpreted gives a clear indication whose voices appear to matter. Average differences (coefficients) compared to male with low ed This demonstrates that the simple addition of a gender variable adds only little understanding of different life experiences of different groups of women

Discussion

Limitations