Women's Experiences as Distance Learners:
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VOL. 9, No. 1, 81-98
Utilizing qualitative research methodology and a feminist framework, I examined women's distance learning experiences. I interviewed nine women from a variety of educational backgrounds and circumstances who had studied a women's studies course by homestudy or teleconferencing from Athabasca University during 1990 and 1991. Distance education for the women interviewed succeeded in extending educational opportunities to them and in dismantling significant barriers that have historically restricted women's access to learning opportunities.
Although they praised distance education, the women interviewed unani-mously agreed that distance study "isn't for everyone" and that it is a significantly different experience for female learners than it is for male learners. These women were grateful that communication technologies, despite their imperfections, allowed them to study from their own homes, at times most convenient for their personal schedules. I conclude that fur-ther research is warranted and offer recommendations to improve women's distance study experiences, particularly in women's studies courses.
À l'aide d'une méthodologie de recherche qualitative et d'un cadre théo-rique féministe, nous avons examiné les expériences d'apprentissage à distance chez les femmes. Neuf femmes de circonstances et d'antécédents scolaires variés qui étaient inscrites, en 1990 et 1991, à un programme d'études féministes offert par l'université Athabasca et dispensé par corres-pondance ou par téléconférence, ont été interviewées aux fins de cette étude. Elle ont déclaré que la formation à distance avait élargi leurs pers-pectives de formation et leur avait permis de briser les entraves qui ont traditionnellement réduit l'accès des femmes à l'instruction. Tout en faisant l'éloge de l'éducation à distance, elles ont souligné que l'apprentissage à distance "ne convient pas à tout le monde" et ont con-firmé que l'expérience des femmes est ici aussi fort différente de celle des hommes. Elles ont exprimé leur gratitude envers une technologie qui, pour imparfaite qu'elle soit, leur permettait néanmoins d'étudier sans quitter leur foyer, et selon leur horaire personnel. Nous en concluons que des recherches supplémentaires sont justifiées, et proposons quelques recom-mandations susceptibles d'améliorer les expériences d'apprentissage à dis-tance des femmes, notamment en ce qui concerne les études féministes. distance et les sujets s'y rattachant. Les critiques non sollicitées ne seront pas acceptées pour fins de publication.
Despite high participation rates, little attention is directed towards gender issues in distance education (Coulter, 1989), nor to women’s ways of know-ing and preferred ways of learning (Clinchy, Belenky, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1985). This lack of attention is problematic given that universities increas-ingly look to distance education as a cost-effective alternative to classroom instruction and that women commonly constitute at least half of total enrolments (Burge, 1988; Faith, 1988). In this context it is crucial to con-sider the feminist ramifications of distance education in order to enhance understanding of women distance learners.
In this paper I present findings of a qualitative research study I under-took into women’s experiences as distance learners. I present women’s personal accounts about educational access and distance technology,1 and when appropriate, I quote directly from the interviewees so that readers can benefit from these women’s first-hand accounts of events and ideas. In conclusion, I identify implications for distance education practice and sug-gest actions for consideration by distance and feminist educators.
The findings of my study are most appropriately viewed as a snapshot of particular students’ experiences at a particular point in time rather than as generalizable, valuative judgments. The strength of my research rests with documenting the richness and range of learner experiences. I sought to discover the personal views and perceptions of women learners and did not externally verify information with tutors and administrators. Conse-quently, caution needs to be exercised in generalizing findings and recom-mendations.
Utilizing qualitative research methodology and a feminist framework, I examined women’s learning experiences in women’s studies courses taught via homestudy and teleconference delivery. I employed women-specific research methodology (Eichler & Lapointe, 1985, p. 12) in order to correct the invisibility and distortion of female experience (Lather, 1988, p. 57) within distance settings. Using feminist theory as a basis, I constructed a theoretical framework that valued the principles of accessibility, collabora-tion, feminist processes, personal empowerment, and political engagement in feminist education. I noted that education should be meaningful and easily accessible to women and that feminist teaching and learning activi-ties should be compatible with feminist approaches and philosophies. I selected in-depth interviewing as the research strategy in order to elicit comprehensive information, rich in detail and personal examples. The in-person interviews were semi-structured and focused on aspects of wom-en’s experiences related to educational access, feminist learning processes, technology, and empowerment. The interviews were tape-recorded, tran-scribed, coded, and analyzed. Interviewee names were changed to ensure confidentiality.
I interviewed nine women from a variety of educational backgrounds and circumstances who had studied a women’s studies course by homestudy or teleconferencing from Athabasca University during 1990 and 1991. I selected the participants based on a prescribed set of criteria (including age, geographic location, delivery mode, course, program of study, tutor assignment, and completion status), which I developed in order to maxi-mize the potential for student diversity. I do not claim that the women I spoke to were representative of other women learners, and I acknowledge that the student sample is less heterogeneous than desired because of the predominately white, middle-class make-up of the student population from which it is drawn.
The women ranged in age from 23 to 67; one woman lived on a farm, five in small towns and cities, and three in large cities. Eight of the nine women were married, and one was a single parent. With respect to occupational categories, the women interviewed worked in the fields of nursing, recrea-tion, counselling, management, social work, and clerical support. Two women were self-employed, one was retired, two were at home with chil-dren full-time, and four were employed full-time outside the home. One woman was of native origin, and the remaining eight were white. One of these eight had a husband of native ancestry. Athabasca University’s women’s studies courses can be best examined against the backdrop of AU’s overall delivery system. AU’s primary mode of course delivery is homestudy, which consists of a self-contained course package supplemented by telephone access to a tutor on a weekly basis for purposes of academic support and assessment. Students are given six-month contracts for 3 credit courses and twelve-month contracts for 6 credit courses. In cases where courses are teleconferenced, the same course package is used. However, the contract period is reduced, and students meet together with a tutor through audio conferencing, typically for seven 2-hour sessions, supplemented by individual phone access on alternate weeks. At the time of the study Athabasca University offered four women’s studies courses: Perspectives on Women: An Introduction to Women’s Studies, Issues in Women’s Health, History of Women in North America, and Issues and Strat-egies in Counselling Girls and Women.
The learning needs of women have received significant academic attention over the past decade. It is generally acknowledged by educators and femi-nists alike that new and better ways must be found to serve the educa-tional interests and needs of large numbers of women. Access issues, therefore, were of particular importance in my study, and I present these findings under the headings of women’s interest in formal study and plan-ning a study schedule.
All of the women were enthusiastic about distance education and placed high value on formal educational and learning opportunities. The majority of women were laudatory about the flexibility of distance study, and Bonnie suggested that having a reputable institution provide distance education services was particularly attractive:
I’ve got the opportunity to do it [study] through an accredited university that is very reputable, and at the same time, do it at my own pace and do it out of my house. To me, it was so appealing.
It is common for women to experience studying via distance education as both appropriate and convenient for their particular life stages and fam-ily circumstances (Bray, 1988; Hayes, 1990). Because of the educational opportunity afforded them by distance education, most of the women shared Dawn’s resolve that:
Now is the time to do it. I think they’re the best thing-especially for women who have children at home. Because I can be at home, which is, right now, where I feel I need to be. That’s my priority. But I also know that I can’t stay home and do nothing all day.
Several women chose distance study because of their personal circum-stances and work commitments. The women interviewees spoke repeatedly about how suitable distance education had been for them, and they de-scribed some of its benefits:
One of the things that I found most appealing was the fact that you didn’t have to be someplace at 7 o’clock. (Christine)
It was good because it was flexible. You could work when you had the time. (Janet)
In some instances, the women chose to study courses via distance education because they had been denied educational opportunities in the past. Marie, for example, related how she had waited more than forty years for the opportunity that she eventually seized through distance edu-cation:
I suppose back when I finished high school, back in 1942, there weren’t many girls going to university. I used to always read Anne books-Anne of Green Gables, Anne of the Islands, and remember how Anne was always getting her B.A. in English? And I kept thinking-Oh, I wish I could do that. . . . Well, I took a business course for a year. . . . Get that in ’42 or ’43 and that was considered good for a girl.
Jean, too, waited many years for the opportunity to study. In her case, she raised four children as a “stay-at-home-mom” before feeling she had an opportunity to pursue some of her personal interests and goals. In most cases, studying by distance education provides women with the opportunity to take courses without having to leave their home com-munities. While travelling to class for some would represent an inconven-ience, for others it would be extremely problematic. Five of the women lived in communities of less than 10,000 population and had few other education alternatives available to them. Given Alberta geography and win-ter weather conditions, travelling is often difficult and dangerous. Christine, who in the past had travelled more than a hundred miles weekly to attend night classes at the nearest college, related how worrying this had been to her husband:
Well that’s the one thing that my husband did raise pure heck about was travelling back and forth in the winter. He just said every time you go on that road you take a chance of being killed and for what.
Two women were using distance study as a bridging mechanism to campus-based programs. Andrea, for example, explained:
I can get them [courses] done quicker. . . . Women can start studying in the home and perhaps build up some confidence to go back to university and back to the university setting.
Dawn, too, was using distance study to prepare her for another educational program. As illustrated by the examples presented, these women believe, as do many distance educators, that distance study lessens traditional barriers related to time, distance, and social factors (Paul, 1989).
Distance education is credited in the literature for extending considerable control over study schedules to learners. It is interesting, in this regard to examine the variety of ways in which the women of this study organize their course work. Some women set rigid study schedules for themselves, while others described themselves as scattered, as buckling down in spurts, or as “leaving it all to the end.” The women also differed with respect to the time and energy they had available for study activities. Dawn, for example, described her situation this way: “I’m in a hurry. I want to get it over with, with as little hassle as possible.” Conversely, Marie stated that “every day is a Sunday when you’re retired.”
All of the women were extremely time conscious, and they treated time as a precious commodity. A comment of Jean’s illustrates this time orientation when she admitted to being “jealous of every minute.” Most of the women I spoke to shared examples of how they combined activities and did more than one thing at a time in order to accommodate study schedules. Christine, who worked at a full-time job outside the home in addition to her family and study responsibilities, provided a good illustration:
I always have a book when I sit down to have my breakfast. I always read. And when I’m preparing supper I continue reading whatever it is. . . . And after supper, after I’ve cleared up, I go for a four mile walk. That’s what I do for me because I’d be crazy if I didn’t. And then I come home and ride my bicycle. I have a stationary bike downstairs and I ride that bike and I read-for sometimes as much as 55 miles I’ve done in one day.
All the women respondents planned their study schedules around the needs of their families. The majority of the women were the primary care givers in their families, and they talked often about juggling priorities and commitments: “I’m trying to juggle going to school and working and being at home” (Bonnie). Similarly, Trudy, a single parent who was audit-ing a course, related how “if I had some one else here I could spend some time on it. But I mean, my days are just full-seven days a week, 18 hours a day. So I wouldn’t have had the time to do it” (i.e. take the course for credit).
Although the women recognized that taking courses added to their workloads and responsibilities, they viewed this reality as inevitable and unavoidable. In this regard Bonnie reported her perception that studying by distance education is a different experience for women than for men:
It’s a lot easier for a man because they can say, “I’ve got to get this done, and you can keep the kids and everyone else away from me, and shut the door.” But I find sometimes that that’s not a two-way street. Because I still have to make supper and I still have to make everybody happy. So I think it is really difficult for women to juggle it.
Bonnie spoke with authority in this matter, since both she and her husband had studied courses by distance education over the past several years. Simi-larly, Janet related how her husband was really supportive in my taking the course. But the practical aspect of when it came to taking the baby out-getting him out of my hair. He did that a couple of times, but not enough. And he knew that too.
These examples illustrate that, for women, taking on study roles often results in “double duty” to the extent that family and housekeeping respon-sibilities do not decrease as a result. Studies in Germany by von Prümmer and Rossie attest to this fact as well (1990). These researchers learned that it is more common for women students to shoulder “double-duty” work and study responsibilities than for male students to do so.
These stories suggest that the control women actually exercise over study schedules appears to be overstated in the literature. Although these nine women have some control over institutional factors, such as pacing and initiating tutor contact, they have relatively little control over study schedules within their own homes. Women who are mothers of young children usually study late at night while the other women fit study activi-ties around both daytime and evening household tasks. Bonnie, for exam-ple, commented that she worked “around what is happening-more around what the family is doing.” Although most of the women recognized the inequitable distribution of household tasks between their spouses and them-selves, they remained seemingly grateful that distance education permitted them to adapt their study schedules around family activities.
The women interviewed were aware of many of the limitations of using distance technologies in education. They assumed (based on experience) that distance study was necessarily a highly structured, relatively solitary method of education. I present findings under the headings of course ma-terials, dis/comfort with telephone tutorials, dis/comfort with teleconferencing, and flexibility of technology.
There is no doubt that course materials and texts were central to the learn-ing experiences of the women I interviewed. Many positive comments were made by the women about the quality and value of the prepared course materials. Janet complimented the authors for providing course ma-terials that were interesting and thought provoking, and she related how she “found the course materials really kind of enlightening.”
The “packaged” nature of course materials is a potential concern amongst some distance educators (Coulter, 1989, p. 15), and indeed, some of the women interviewed were apprehensive about the prepared materi-als. Janet thought that “the gray areas were missing.” Similarly, Bonnie believed packaged materials prevented her from learning through personal experience:
I think because of the material in the course and the way it was organized, I don’t think you could put that much of your personal experience or your personal thought into it. And I think that was just how the course was organized.
Offsetting this concern somewhat is the feminist endorsement of a questioning, critical approach to learning that characterized tutoring in these women’s courses. Janet and Dawn both spoke about how they were encour-aged by their tutors to assume a critical attitude towards written materials. Janet explained: “I think there was an openness and you didn’t have to accept what the author was saying as the gospel truth or anything like that. . . . There was openness to criticizing the readings.” Similarly, Dawn recalled her tutor encouraging her to be discriminating in her reading: “I believe the message she gave me over the course was to take what you need from the texts, and you know, it doesn’t all have to apply.” Kate’s experience of being expected to assume a critical perspective was less positive, however. She attributed the critical and sceptical attitude she applied towards the course material as providing her with an excuse for dropping the course:
And as I started reading further, into some of the material then I started seeing-no, this is not how it happened. I started questioning some of the material. And that’s when I kind of put a barrier and said, “no more!” So I don’t know how much of that was an excuse to just quit doing the course.
Kate also attributed her discomfort with criticism of the course material to her native background:
I relate that to my native culture. We were taught not to be critical. That’s part of something that I grew up with. So when I’m told to be critical of something that is supposedly written by an expert, I find that very difficult to do.
Critical questioning is a cultural taboo in Kate’s community. Native people learn as children that to question adults and authorities is disrespectful and inappropriate behaviour (English-Currie, 1990, p. 47). Kate then believed that her difficulties were at least twofold. The course materials tended to be white, middle-class, and not especially relevant to Kate’s experience as a native woman living in northern Canada. In addi-tion, Kate’s cultural background and earlier training made it difficult for her to question and be critical of the written word of experts. These circum-stances placed Kate in a dilemma, which she found difficult to resolve. Burge (1990) notes in this regard that, “learning designs in such education have to avoid the imposition of hidden and inappropriate curricula that conflict with cultural perspectives” (p. 15).
Although sensitivity towards women’s diverse cultural backgrounds is important, it is unlikely that conflict can be completely avoided. Historical patriarchal structures of all kinds need to be questioned and modified. In this regard, Kate indicated that although she experienced discomfort and conflict when attempting to integrate feminist thinking into her native culture, doing so was important and worth the effort.
It’s something that I personally need to overcome and work on. . . . I think this is an excellent way for women to learn how to be assertive and to put over their viewpoints, in a course like this. . . . Even the males have the same kind of background where we’ve all been brought up to believe that you don’t talk back or criticize someone from the dominant race. It’s just starting to change now where people are doing it, but there’s still a lot of retraining that has to be done.
Dawn raised a major concern about the “dated” nature of course ma-terials in one women’s studies courses. She returned to this theme repeat-edly throughout our conversation. She related how:
One of the things I don’t like is the fact that a lot of the materials are dated . . . so a lot of things have changed since that stuff has been written and that is dangerous to have that kind of literature there for women who don’t know that-that’s my concern. . . . I was kind of discouraged by that. (Dawn)
Dawn felt strongly that the integrity of courses was compromised if mate-rial in them is so old as to be incorrect or to lack relevance.
The women I interviewed spoke candidly about their comfort levels with telephone tutoring and teleconference technologies, and I recorded a range of experiences. Dawn described a comfortable working relationship she had with her telephone tutor: “And I talked to her and she always had a lot of time for me. And she liked to gab a bit too. And she’d chatter a bit and I’d chatter back and I felt really connected that way.” Relationships between tutors and students were not as personal and intimate as might be expected in other women’s studies contexts, however. Jean, for example, did not find the telephone conducive to establishing personal relationships with tutors: “I find it really difficult to communi-cate over a phone. . . . And I can pick up a lot of stuff over the phone, but I really miss personal contact. . . . I need a one-to-one.” For Jean a “one-to-one” assumes face-to-face contact and necessarily precludes distance technologies. Jean went on to tell me how important non-verbal cues for communication were, and she discussed how difficult communicating by telephone was because of the missing non-verbal components. As a result, Jean considered phone conversations and tutorials to be both impersonal and superficial.
Initiating contact with tutors by telephone sometimes presented diffi-culties for students. Dawn, for example, explained:
To try to get a hold of my tutor who may be in Edmonton or wherever, it’s a real pain to get through. It’s ridiculous! To get through to tutors sometimes is crazy. You’re on the phone for an hour with busy signals.
Two of the women also explained to me that they felt constrained by the thought of long distance costs. Even though the university pays for long distance charges, many students felt compelled to keep conversations with tutors brief and exclusively content focused. As a result, these students phoned tutors only when essential:
If you’re talking long distance you feel “Oh dear, this is costing money.” I mean that is part of it-part of the restriction. Again, it’s just a voice coming over a phone which you’ve never met. (Marie)
The technology itself, institutional constraints, and the way learning ac-tivities are structured all affected students’ comfort levels with using the technologies. Some students felt shy and intimidated about establishing phone con-tact with tutors. Janet, for example, felt the onus should not always rest on the student to initiate phone calls:
I didn’t hear from her [the tutor] personally until the end of the course. . . . I don’t mind phoning her the first time; that’s fine. But I can see where some people would feel, “I didn’t want to phone, I don’t want to bother her” kind of thing.
Marie experienced a level of discomfort with telephone quizzes, specifically. She talked about the stress and pressure she suffered when required to take quizzes by telephone:
I have trouble thinking quickly on a phone. . . . It’s all these phone quizzes. . . . I would way prefer to be able to just phone them [tutors] if I had trouble. Because once I’m on there and I’m trying-thinking- maybe it’s because I’m older too, you can’t think as fast. And I’m think-ing, I’ve got to answer it. And the more I worry about that then my mind goes all blank and I can’t think of anything!
Despite some of the problems and difficulties these students experi-enced with telephone tutorials, for the most part the women appeared satisfied with, or at least resigned to, telephone technology. When asked directly about problems, most of the women either suggested that the prob-lems they experienced were minimal or they discounted the importance of the problems. However, I question educators’ contentions that “the telephone is a communication tool that most women are comfortable with” (Westfall, 1989, p. 25). Although the women I spoke to were comfortable using the telephone for social purposes, they felt less confident using tel-ephones for teaching and learning transactions.
The literature documents that whether students study via teleconference or homestudy, technology significantly structures and alters their learning ex-periences (Prindiville, 1991, p. 327). It is interesting that the women I interviewed were less satisfied with teleconference technology than they were with telephone technology. The majority of them did not believe that teleconferencing offered significant advantages over homestudy delivery. Christine, for example, commented: “Unless you’ve got that eye-to-eye contact, you might as well have nothing, and so you might as well be doing it on your own.” This dissatisfaction is particularly noteworthy, given that some feminist distance education literature promotes teleconferencing and its increased capacity for interaction as superior to homestudy delivery using telephones (Faith & Sturrock, 1990, p. 18).
Two of the nine students I interviewed had taken a women’s studies course by teleconference, while several other students had previously stud-ied by teleconference at other institutions. All of these women were criti-cal of teleconferencing, and they identified several factors that they be-lieved detracted from positive and optimal learning conditions. Some women stressed how boring teleconferencing was, and they talked about the difficulty they experienced in trying to be attentive. Andrea, for exam-ple, told me how “it’s hard to pay attention to a black box.” In addition, Kate explained:
Well, we all had these little gadgets [microphones] in front of us. And first of all, those things I find very uncomfortable. Because it seems like I’m talking to myself, and I avoid things that don’t talk back to me or I can’t see.
Burge and Howard (1990) report that it is common for students initially to feel uncomfortable with teleconferencing equipment and protocols, and Prindiville and Boak (1987, p. 11) note that teleconferencing can be intimi-dating to students. Kate’s discomfort with teleconference technology may have had a cultural basis as well. English-Currie (1990) explains that in traditional native cultures physical observation is essential to communication. Adjust-ing to the absence of non-visual cues is difficult for many students, how-ever, and it is not peculiar to native students. The non-visual nature of teleconferencing contributes to some rather unusual conditions in students’ learning environments and these conditions can be problematic. Kate brought her husband to a couple of teleconference sessions unbeknownst to either the instructor or to the other students. A pattern seems to have developed whereby Kate’s husband would direct comments to her that were critical of what was said by the instructor and other students. Kate remarked that he would say things like: “Since when?” and “You can sure tell a woman wrote that!” Although Kate perceived some benefits to her husband’s attendance, such as consciousness-raising, she also conceded that his comments sometimes made her angry and defensive and would result in arguments between them. Kate’s husband’s intru-siveness into her teleconference classes may have influenced her decision to withdraw from the teleconference course as much as did her discomfort with the technology and pressures she was experiencing at work.
That Kate’s husband listened in to some of the teleconference classes calls into question the overall integrity of the educational experience for all students involved. The instructor and students in all likelihood as-sumed that all the listeners were known. That an outsider was present raises concerns about student vulnerability and ethics involved. It appears imperative for educational institutions to protect students’ privacy in teleconference sessions, especially in those contexts where learners share personal experiences.
It is also noteworthy that Kate is one of two native women who par-ticipated in the same teleconference course that Janet attended. Janet was completely unaware that native women had been in the course, however. When questioned about the diversity of student racial and cultural back-grounds in the teleconference course, for example, Janet assumed everyone was Caucasian. She only learned through one of the on-line discussions that one student came from a Ukrainian cultural background. The invis-ibility of students in this delivery mode means that, without teaching strat-egies to counter it, important diversity among women may be concealed or overlooked.
Recognizing and working with student diversity, whether related to race, class, or sexual orientation, is an important aspect of feminist educa-tion (Briskin, 1989; hooks, 1984). In the specific context of distance edu-cation, Burge and Lenskyj (1990) note that to acknowledge such diversity in learners’ experience and backgrounds, and to make the bridging process between different groups explicit and conscious, is crucial to successful feminist teaching. (p. 25) These authors also emphasize the importance of recognizing regional dif-ferences among distance students. Although my information is incomplete,it seems little attempt is made in Janet and Kate’s teleconference class to counter the limits of distance technology in making the students present to each other in their diversity.
Janet was somewhat critical of the teaching processes employed during her teleconference course experience. She noted that instead of interaction between students being encouraged and fostered, it was more likely for student comments to be directed to the instructor:
There didn’t seem to be very much conversation between students. It was mostly directed towards Margaret [the instructor] and then Margaret would kind of branch out. It was like she was the mediator, kind of. Yeah, it wasn’t really like you got a discussion going with somebody else from the group.
Distance teleconferencing is often heralded as a way to expand and im-prove student interaction. This observation is troubling. Janet was also critical that not all students had equal opportunities to speak in her teleconference class. She related some students tended to monopolize discussions:
It almost seemed to me a lot of times that it was the same people doing the talking. . . . She [the tutor] just opened it [questions] up to the floor and didn’t go specifically to a person or even a centre. Even if she would have gone to a centre and said “what do you girls in Whitecourt think” or something like that-that might have been helpful too.
Kate, too, felt that the processes used in the teleconference sessions she attended failed to encourage her active participation:
They [other teleconference students] were, a lot of them were-appeared to know what they were talking about. And that’s the other thing I was intimidated by. They were confident in their presentation of the material through that speaker thing. And the more that someone is confident over something that I can’t see, the more I sort of start thinking well, maybe what I am going to say will sound stupid.
Burge and Howard (1990) point out that appropriate student behaviour is as essential to effective teleconferencing as is good tutor facilitation (p. 12). It appears unrealistic to assume, however, that either students or tutors inherently possess the skills necessary to interact effectively with one an-other by teleconference without guidance and training.
Although several students did acknowledge that they experienced tech-nical problems with teleconference equipment, they did not attribute the same degree of importance to these problems as to the learning processes themselves. Students appeared to consider technical difficulties as inevita-ble and as nuisance factors only. It was not the technology per se but its application that students criticized.
Although the flexibility of distance education is often noted in the litera-ture, the majority of women I interviewed believed that delivery modes were rigidly structured and not subject to student initiated change or modi-fication. Christine spoke about this student perception in the following terms:
But at the outset of taking this kind of a program on, those are the choices that one makes. And that was my choice-to say that I would do these courses by correspondence, and that means that I will not have that con-tact with other people. And that’s the way it has to be, so there’s no point in making a fuss about it.
Christine did not consider interaction with others a viable option in dis-tance education; therefore, she neither expected nor pursued contact with other students. The same was true for Jean, who told me that “you don’t have a choice-an opportunity to study in a group in distance education.” These women appeared resigned to solitary study as a mandatory compo-nent of distance education.
Feminist distance education literature promotes the effectiveness of multimedia approaches to women’s learning (Prindiville & Boak, 1987). The women I spoke with generally did not endorse multimedia approaches to distance study, although there was some range of opinion. Some women preferred audiotapes to teleconferencing, while the majority preferred writ-ten materials over audiotapes. Dawn related how much easier it was to study from a transcript than from a taped conversation or lecture. When given a choice about supplemental learning materials, the women selected only those they considered essential to the course and those they could easily access without additional travel or disruption of their schedules. The women interviewed did not perceive that distance education tech-nology fostered a learning climate in which there was a considerable de-gree of flexibility. The limited type and degree of control that these women actually exercised in distance study, therefore, contradicts much of the distance education literature. Although it is often acknowledged that dis-tance education has fewer imposed restrictions than more traditional edu-cational forms, students perceived course structure and delivery format to be essentially non-negotiable.
I am persuaded that the problems and limitations of distance technolo-gies rest largely with the use and applications made of them. Many of the complaints students had about teleconferencing, for example, related to sessions that students perceived to be poorly structured and facilitated. Students were dissatisfied with how a teleconference tutor conducted ses-sions, for example. This tutor was criticized for failing to involve everyone and for intimidating students with a perceived aggressive, non-supportive teaching approach. Some problems also appeared attributable to institu-tional procedures and constraints that result in limited tutor accessibility.
Distance education for the women interviewed succeeded in extending new and valuable educational opportunities to them. This increased access was particularly important for women who had few viable educational alterna-tives, whether rural women (Westfall, 1989) or mothers of young children (Bray, 1988). Women I spoke to credited distance education with disman-tling significant barriers that otherwise would have prevented, or at least inhibited, their educational participation. In particular, these women placed high value on the opportunity to study from their own homes, at times most convenient for their personal schedules.
These women’s stories also revealed their perceptions that studying via distance was a significantly different experience for female learners than for male learners. Distance learning was “easier for a man.” For these women, family responsibilities remained the same as they took on the role of student. By necessity, study schedules were planned around the needs of others.
Although they praised distance study, the women interviewees unani-mously agreed that distance education “isn’t for everyone.” Because dis-tance study requires a considerable degree of learner self-determination and self-motivation, the women contended that it was best suited to self-starters. Both women who withdrew from courses did so for reasons they identified as relating to their lack of self-discipline. Distance education as a study mode can be an important educational alternative for women, but it does not represent a panacea for all the problems of access to traditional educational systems.
Overwhelmingly, these women accepted the limitations of distance study and made necessary accommodations for it. They were grateful that com-munication technologies, despite their imperfections, allowed them to study from a distance. Furthermore, women were more concerned about gaining access to educational opportunities than they were with the form and struc-ture of these same opportunities.
Many of the problems and dilemmas associated with feminist study in distance education contexts can be directly related to the paradox of women gaining access to an education system that feminists commonly discredit and strive to transform. As documented by Wine and Ristock (1991): Women have organized to elicit changes in educational practices and ma-terials at every level of the educational system as a result of the feminist recognition that, traditionally, education has fostered male power and con-trol. (p. 1)
I believe, however, that distance learning environments can become more effective in delivering women’s studies programs. To achieve this objec-tive, feminist educators and students alike must envision a transformed “classroom” and collaboratively design the necessary structures, processes, and supports to create and sustain it.
Further research is required to determine the degree to which the find-ings of this small qualitative study are generalizable to larger populations of women learners in other distance settings. I believe, however, that the women learners who participated in this study shared valuable insights and perceptions that can be utilized to improve our understanding about dis-tance study. In this context, I propose the following recommendations for consideration by educators:
My study also undertook to discover whether feminist aims were advanced and social action goals achieved within distance contexts and whether women experienced personal empowerment. I also explored how much collaborative learning occurs in women’s studies courses taught at a distance, and the form this collaboration typically assumes. These topics are further developed and presented in other papers available from the author.
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Susan May is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University. For eight years prior to assuming her position with St. Francis Xavier, Susan was employed by Athabasca University. She has recently completed an Ed.D. in Adult Education from OISE. This article is extracted from her dissertation work.