Workshop

Case Studies of Gender Issues in the Work Place

Gender issues in the workplace are significant, difficult to address, and difficult to prepare students to address. They are thus ideal candidates for case development and pedagogy. Use of cases can both increase awareness of the issues and help students (and perhaps others, i.e., administrators) develop "coping strategies" for these matters when they arise. Further, gender issues arise in all cultures, albeit differently from culture to culture, and institutional settings, making them particularly appropriate for an international audience such as WACRA conferences offer.

The session will be conducted by a team with experience in gender issues, case writing and case teaching. Dr. Jacqueline Delaat of Marietta College, Ohio, U.S.A. is teaching and using cases in the non-profit sector (government). She has written an award winning case on gender stereotyping of work (i.e., woman is qualified for one position, hired for another with promise of moving to the first, which never occurs due to stereotyping, women can't do that). She is devoting her sabbatical this Winter to writing additional cases for use in administration classes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Elizabeth M. Hawthorne, Penn State (PA, USA) is a long-term WACRA Board member who has presented frequently at WACRA conferences. She has written several cases for use with higher education graduate students and has conducted workshops on teaching and writing case studies. Dr. Anne Schroer-Lamont (VA, U.S.A.) is the Associate Dean of Students and Counseling Psychologist in the University Counseling Service at Washington and Lee University and has used cases extensively in workshops worldwide teaching about sexual harassment and other gender issues: 1. to be more sensitive to the subtle aspects of gender issues in the workplace, 2. identify several foci for development of cases, 3. be able to analyze a situation for its potential as a viable instructional case study.

Workshop participants will collaborate to identify the range of gender
issues in the workplace and to specify the elements of a "good" gender case, to create a "checklist" for the development of rich gender cases that will foster student learning. The final portion of the workshop will focus on examining the preparation of such cases, how to find topics and issues for gender-related cases, and small groups will devise strategies to develop cases based on initial data provided by the workshop facilitators. Particular attention will be focused on cultural differences, the kinds of data sources available for the cases at hand, and any problems (and their solutions) in constructing the case with the information at hand. The workshop will be interactive and participants will have the beginnings of at least three cases at the end of the workshop. These cases can then (after the WACRA conference) further developed in cooperation with other workshop participants. Once these cases are completed they can then be submitted for presentation at WACRA '98 in Marseille (Provence), France in 1998! For more information or to express your interest in participating contact: Elizabeth M. Hawthorne, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Higher Education Director of Academic Affairs Penn State Berks Campus P. O. Box 7009 Tulpehocken Road Reading, PA 19610-6009 610-320-4875 FAX: 610 320-4857 e-mail em7@psuvm.psu.edu.

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