Gender and education: Towards a framework for a critical analysis of agricultural training

Studies of education are an example of developments in feminist rural studi es which move debates about gender and power beyond the now substantial dis cussions of farming. The work of Shortall (Sociologia Ruralis 1996) has bee n crucial in reviewing current literatures on agriculture and education, an d identifying some of the ways training perpetuates dominant processes of s ocialization which differentially shape men's and women's experiences. This paper contributes to these developments by proposing the need for a theore tically informed framework to guide feminist educational analyses. We argue that notions of gender and theoretically reflective action-oriented method ologies need to be considered in establishing such analyses. We then discus s how concepts of seriality, discourse and agency provide broad tools which support an inquiry into the contexts, operation, participants and outcomes of agricultural training systems. These dimensions are integrated as a fra mework of study. We close by sketching out areas of possible further debate on the approach presented.