Adult Learners / Women

Educating Rita (Gilbert & Russell, 1983) is a film about a 26-year-old hairdresser who decides to resume her education by entering herself for Britain's Open University. The university tutor assigned to prepare her for her examinations is Frank, a professor of literature, sometime poet, and full-time drinker. He is enchanted by the witty Rita, whose real name is Susan, and in the ensuing relationship worries that her growing sophistication and textbook knowledge will 'spoil' her innate charm and intelligence. Her presence at first alleviates his depression but later deepens it as she succeeds in the academic pursuits he has come to regard as worthless. As she points out, however, it is easy enough for him to squander his gifts and advantages because he has always taken higher education for granted while she--as the film has shown--has had to struggle against a variety of deterrents to get to the point where she could--as indeed she does--pass a difficult university examination with 'distinction.' In the course of the film, Rita's share of the drama focuses on the elements in her life that work against her desire to get an education and Educating Rita is almost an illustrated version of the professional literature on deterrents to adult education (Rose, 1993; Valentine & Darkenwald, 1996; XXXX, XXXX).

Rose, who concentrates specifically on women learners, notes that studies have consistently found that "family support (both emotional and financial)" is a key concept fo

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and have children. Thus Rita not only lacks family support and has a full-time job, she also faces the angry, obstructive attitudes of those closest to her. The objections they raise are partly based on gender, because they see any role for women other than the traditional one of caring for husbands, bearing and raising children as unnatural. The only time women truly bask in the approval of the working-class characters in the book is when they are pregnant (Rita's sister, Denny's second wife). But it is the men's strain of "hostility to education and to middle-class object orientation" that is the strongest potential deterrent for Rita (XXXX, XXXX, p. 61). Questions of class and the 'presumptuous' nature of a hairdresser who wants a university education are also, however, problems for Rita and Frank as well. Frank makes assumptions about the value of university education that are self-centered and keep him from being able to see Rita as more than a charming woman whose goals are none of his business so long as she is truly capable of achieving them. But Rita has also internalized much of the attitude of her class--not so much in terms of her beliefs about her innate ability as in terms of her preparedness and a general,

Category: Psychology - A