Too Scared to Learn: Women, Violence, and Education

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Summary: Too Scared to Learn: Women, Violence and Education
Review: Until the publication of Too Scared to Learn: Women, Violence and Education, public discussion amongst adult educators around issues of violence has been sporadic and scattered; the literature sparse. Too Scared to Learn presents a long awaited and much needed research-based description and analysis of connections between violence and learning in adult education, breaking silences and bringing recognition of the fact that for many adult learners and educators, trauma has an impact on learning processes.

Jenny Horsman has been contributing important information to adult educators for well over a decade. With her groundbreaking book, Something in my mind besides the everyday (Women's Press, 1990), she gave adult educators pause and helped us understand that isolation, violence, class, ethnicity and race affect the ways in which women attend to learning in adult education contexts. Ten years and many questions later, Horsman's new book, Too Scared to Learn: Women, Violence and Education, offers new depth and breadth into the issues surrounding women's learning generally, specifically addressing violence and learning and ways in which educators respond to experiences of violence as they affect learning.

Horsman is clear in stating that violence is not something that only happens to "others," but that it is woven into the cultures in which we live. Those who have had direct experiences of violence respond to those experiences differently, but may share behaviors that impact upon the ability to be present to learning and teaching. Horsman presents findings of research conducted across Canada and internationally and works throughout the book to develop a cogent analysis of her findings. She weaves together both therapeutic and educational theories clearly and accessibly, giving the reader a firm understanding of the issues inherent in working with learners with experiences of violence. She further moves the thinking forward by considering ways in which her own observations and the anecdotal evidence at hand could and must influence shifts in educational practice and policy.

A generous collaborator, Horsman not only credits, but explicitly includes input from those with whom she consulted during her research process. This interweaving of multiple voices not only enriches the text, but also, in Horsman's capable hands, brings together the varied perspectives through which violence and learning has been considered. First Nations/culture-based approaches to learning -- which include recognition of the body, mind, emotion and spirit -- as well as constraints and contexts under which adult education occurs, are delineated. The overview of the therapeutic literature is interwoven as well, giving the reader a clear context through which to understand a range of behaviors and responses to learning that might have been interpreted as "laziness" or lack of seriousness, for example, framing behavior, instead, in ways that connect to both seemingly negative and positive behaviors adapted by those with experiences of violence. Horsman is meticulously careful in not creating stereotypes, but rather, writes against the temptation of a simple analysis in favor of a more complex and richly layered understanding of connections between experiences of violence, visible behaviors, expectations and actions of learners and teachers. Read this book.