Читать книгу 100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research - Luke Duesbery - Страница 27

Simply put, a gender theory approach to research involves the researcher examining the world through the lens that places emphasis on the social construction of gender. And so, a gender theory approach to action research involves the participant researcher using that lens. Gender theory arose in the late 1970s and 1980s to directly challenge the idea that masculinity and femininity arise out of biological differences. Instead, it suggests gender roles were and are constructed by society. This is best evidenced by different gender roles in different cultures around the world. Gender is not individual, but it is influenced by those around us. Parents, siblings, friends, media, and of course, our feelings. Indeed, whereas once one could only choose an identity in their mind and with their behavior, now one can also choose it by altering their body. In universities, this movement led to the replacement of feminist studies with gender studies, which focuses on gender identity choice and creation. It isn’t simply about male and female; it is about a spectrum of gender and an understanding that we create it.

There is a strong overlap between gender theory and action research. Both challenge traditional thought. Gender theory challenges traditional conceptions of male and female as a dichotomy, and action research challenges the traditional thought that a researcher needs to be outside of the research and not an active participant. Both emphasize the empowerment of individuals, in which people actively engage in decision making and understanding. Both emphasize the development of personal agency as endeavors and choices, and both challenge the establishment.

Some action researchers might focus on gender-relative research questions. For example, an action researcher in a local clinic might ask: do young women feel welcome in the clinic and are they receiving the services they want? Another action researcher might ask a similar question but use the lens of gender theory: Is the satisfaction with clinic services related to patients’ sense of gender identity? At minimum, a gender theory lens calls for the action researcher to ask questions and place findings from an action research project into the context of the influence and impact of gender identity construction.

More questions? See questions 18 and 21.