OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Walters, Shirley"

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A poor women's pedagogy' : an exploration of learning in a housing social movement
(2006) Ismail, Salma; Mama, Amina; Walters, Shirley
This study examines the critical role that adult education played in a housing social movement whose membership was mainly poor African women in informal settlements. In this social movement women have combined learning with the struggle to obtain social goods from the state. The study explores the interconnectedness between learning, development and social change. The conceptual framework developed from a feminist critique of popular education was applied in the methodology and yielded insights with regard to the learning of VM women. The feminist critique allowed for an exploration of the contradictions within popular education and people-centred development. In addition it provided a vocabulary to explain the learning and agency of VM women. The conceptual framework allowed me to argue that learning is contextual, and to analyse and understand learning in the micro-context (VM and the life changes and learning of VM women) it is necessary to examine the interaction between the macro-- (political, economic and policy context of South Africa) and micro-contexts. The interaction of these contexts has brought political opportunities to mobilise the agency of poor African women who were seeking solutions to their housing problems.