ERIC Number: EJ1160801
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0954-0253
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Available Date: N/A
Constructing a Professional: Gendered Knowledge in the (Self-)Positioning of Skin and Spa Therapy Students
Bredlöv, Eleonor
Gender and Education, v29 n7 p890-906 2017
This study outlines the self-positioning of skin and spa therapy students. More specifically, it focuses how they position themselves as professionals in terms of knowledge, and how gender is at play throughout this process. Drawing on a poststructural approach, inspired by Foucault and feminist theory, regularities of description and self-description were analysed. This approach provides analytical tools for analysing how people engage with discourse in this micro-context of education and training, and feminist theory enables an understanding of how gender relations of power emerge. The material consists of interview transcripts derived from interviews with 20 skin and spa therapy students. The study shows how a scientific and caring professional emerges, producing gender relations as effects of power. Furthermore, a caring discourse is ultimately mobilised and a stereotyped image of the beauty industry is shown to govern students' self-positioning, reproducing norms of gender and consumption.
Descriptors: Cosmetology, Professional Identity, Self Concept, Gender Differences, Postmodernism, Feminism, Theories, Interviews, Power Structure, Caring, Vocational Education, Foreign Countries, Stereotypes, Sex Role
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden
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