At Educon one of the main sessions was focusing on the gendered
challenges within engineering, which fits with today's ‘
girls in ICT’ day. The educon
panel was sharing their own stories (being female pioneers, or lack of role
models), the clear barrier related to policies stereotyping gender roles,
constructed family values allocated to boys and girls, need for dedicated
female networks, and the clear glass ceiling when looking at leadership roles
for women in IT and engineering). As the discussion moved forward, I remembered
that this is mirrored in a recent book I reviewed. If you are looking for
similar stories, and want to learn how women addressed the professional challenges
they faced in classically male-dominant areas, this is a good book.
This book combines the personal and professional journeys of 29 women
and two men who all made a career developing and using educational technology (EdTech).
The book provides an inspiring account of what the challenges were which the first
EdTech women encountered and how they overcame them in order to create a
professional space inside an - at that time - male dominant field. The majority
of the EdTech women in this book are connected to the Association for
Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), an organisation founded in
1923 to focus on National (US) Education, division of Visual Instruction. Each of the chapters of the book is written by
the women or men who lived through the actual experience of having to secure a
career in the EdTech world. These different narratives provide a rich, at times
deeply personal, professional and varied account of what it takes to enter and
work within the EdTech field. While reading the book I often nodded as parts of
the journeys shared were recognisable and – it seems – universal to all EdTech
professionals. The importance of mentorship, leadership and trust emerge
clearly from all the journeys. And in many of them the act of accepting your
own realities (being different, coming from a variety of backgrounds,
overcoming deep personal trauma) and uplifting your own situation as well as
others by investing in education, provides an inspiring read.
Overview
Ana Donaldson edited this book. She has been a past president of AECT
(the Association for Educational Communications and Technology) and in that
position she took the initiative to gather journeys from other women who have
had an impact on educational technology anywhere from 40 years ago up until
2016. The book is divided into three parts: individual voices, historical
perspective and mentoring. Where the majority of the book is taken by the part
on individual voices, providing 150 pages of personal as well as professional
accounts of what it takes to enter the EdTech field and becoming a renowned
EdTech professional. The historical perspective comprises three additions which
cover the history or AECT, some of the lesser known pioneering woman in EdTech
covered through short vignettes, and a generational focus on EdTech learners
and their distinct characteristics put in their technological context. The
final part of the book looks at mentoring, but attention to mentoring is
already prevalent in many of the individual voices. The mentoring part is
different from the mentoring mentioned in the individual voices, as it zooms in
on what it takes to be an effective mentor, the necessity of intentional
mentorship and the importance of being a role model to new female EdTech
students. Each chapter of the book consists of a personal account of life as an
EdTech professional. In some cases this personal account is told
chronologically, starting from early life right to current career and status,
at other times the focus is more on the professional journey highlighting detailed
career challenges and successes. After each account a selection of publications
by the author of that chapter is offered. These publications consist of high
impact journal articles, clearly emphasizing the importance of publishing in
high impact journals if you – as an EdTech academic – want to make a name for
yourself or get tenure. At the end of the chapter a brief biography per author
is given, highlighting personal achievements and interests.
An inside look
Reading through the stories of the individual voices, the reader soon
finds reoccurring themes that impacted most of the women who shared their
EdTech journeys. The journeys of the women and their consecutive jobs or career
titles also reveal a change in jargon, e.g. at first audiovisual education was
used instead of the term educational technology, and the titles covering
professional positions involving what is now known as EdTech varied depending
on institutes and research programs. From those EdTech experts graduating
around the late 60’s or early 70’s, it becomes clear that the audiovisual side
of education was a male dominated field, including the academic posts
investigating any type of technology for education. The women who got EdTech
positions often point to strong female role models in their family (mothers,
grandmothers) who inspired a new generation of women, as well as open minded
male mentors opening doors, supporting endeavors and showing opportunities. From those early years onward, those women who
gained access to EdTech and joined forces to forge lifelong friendships and
collaborations seem to have thrived. Connecting and daring to build informal
connections with those who seem to have gained status and established professionalism
seems to help in getting to grips with the professional, academic as well as
personal challenges. More than one author mentions sisterhood as a means to
keep motivated and grow stronger, and that is true for all decades covered in
this book.
The importance of getting a PhD becomes clear while reading this
volume, and it is amazing how many different indirect reasons there are to take
up a PhD (at the beginning of their career many of the women did want to teach
in primary or high school and many of them did teach at some point). But it is
clear that this is essential if you want to move forward in an academic
environment, or if you want to be taken seriously as a professional. Unfortunately,
it also becomes clear from the different stories that obtaining a PhD nowadays
is no longer a guarantee for getting into a tenure position. When reading the
book one understands the importance of getting a formal degree, but many
authors also emphasize the importance of accepting yourself. One author summarised:
“Know what you know and what you do not, know who you are and who you are not,
embrace your young-self – and your aging self”, a message that I feel resonates
for more than just the women in the EdTech field.
Taking up leadership early on also beams out as one of the common
actions that will increase your chances to make it in EdTech. This includes
voluntary work such as starting a minority focused community of practitioners,
though a warning is mentioned that we – women – should realise that a lot of
the support we offer can be seen as ‘invisible labor’, where supporting
students from similar minority groups as ourselves does demand extra time and
effort which other academics do not need to address. Leadership actions can
result in additional expertise regarding funding skills, co-authoring papers,
or creating a community of peers and all of these have a great impact on
increasing career options. Taking up leadership also creates flexibility,
moving from academia to corporate or visa versa, depending on the passion felt
by specific EdTech jobs.
Mentorship is without doubt crucial both to growing as a professional,
as to offering new opportunities to EdTech students. Mentoring allows rapid
growth to take place (learning from experts), it offers opportunities to learn
from students (keeping in touch with all developments), it enables actions
towards more social justice and it often results in lifelong networks.
Strengths and weaknesses
The journeys of each of these women is astonishing, and provides such a
rich texture of diverse backgrounds and opportunities. Some authors mention
financial implications and having to work multiple jobs in order to pay for
college or university, others mentioned different cultural backgrounds which
influenced their perception of what it takes to get into EdTech, and still others
had to find their way against personal hardship, or microagressions coming from
what should be colleagues … Courage to keep moving forward is clearly present
in all journeys.
One non-outspoken idea is that many of the women shared that they were
initially not intending to pursue an academic career, and especially not a PhD.
In many cases the idea of obtaining a PhD came from a mentor, a colleague, or
chance. This stands in stark contrast to the accounts of those same authors
mentioning their male partners, who consciously wanted to get a PhD. A clear
reminder of the intricate groups of people who have been socialised into ‘their
place in society’, which forces society’s status quo onto them, even though
they are well placed to burst that socialized bubble.
The rise of EdTech reaches beyond the history of EdTech women, and the
situations they came across while aiming to establish themselves as
professionals, nevertheless I feel that the focus on women provides an
additional and rich layer of importance to getting a career going in a more
male oriented, academic field. It shows additional challenges, and therefor
additional strengths that not only provide insights for other women, but also to
men coming from different backgrounds and trying to enter academia or a
profession which is new to them or their family.
I would have liked more EdTech women of color to be taken up in this
volume, their stories reveal the importance of being part of a sub-group of
women to obtain mutual empowerment. Although moments of sexism are mentioned by
many authors, similarly each woman of color sharing their journey in the book
gave accounts of racism on top of the sexism they sometimes encountered. Though
sexism, racism and general challenges are mentioned, the book is above all
focusing on what helps each one of us (male or female) forward: mentorship, shared
family responsibilities, having role models, being part of a network, feeling
part of a community of like-minded professionals, and knowing that differences
strengthen academia and as a result society as a whole.
Although many voices can be heard, the book does consist of women and
men being linked to AECT. This does limit the scope for those readers not being
familiar with this US based organisation, or living in other countries with
different educational systems, cultural challenges or EdTech support.
Coming from a working family myself, without family members knowing
what academic jobs are or even what you need to do in order to get one of those
jobs, this book makes a difference. It strengthens some of the actions I have
taken, and it shows those options I sometimes do not dare to undertake. The
book empowered me, and informed me about my chosen professional field.
In a world were quick opinions seem to reign, this book offers many
voices that support attention to the importance of community (in all its
variance and diversity), creating a nurturing working environment, and actively
working to decrease hegemony that effects most of us. Anyone wanting to know
more about the professional options available in EdTech, or the challenges you
might face as a woman interested in technology, or wanting to get a historical
perspective of an emerging educational field, will find answers to these
questions in this book.
