Where Has All the Feminism Gone? Teaching Early Twenty First Century "Women's and Gender Studies" in an Elite Southeastern American University (original) (raw)

Call for Submissions: Issue on Teaching Feminisms

Caribbean Review of Gender Studies

Teaching should be a liberatory act says noted Black feminist intellectual and feminist pedagogue bell hooks in Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Over the last few decades, feminist theorizing has been a framework for advancing the women’s liberation movement across the globe. Critical pedagogues who see education and social change as inextricable, have long since lauded feminism’s intersectional potentiality for liberating enchained humanity (Freire, 1970; Giroux and McLaren, 1994; hooks, 1994; Hill Collins, 2000). Neo-liberal educational reforms have however ruptured ideas of teaching and learning as necessarily emancipatory. We are now living in a climate where education is largely a profit-driven endeavour, where primacy is given to skill development at the expense of critical thinking, and where independent ideas that challenge the status quo are seen as inimical to the profit economy. Under the neo-liberal order, pedagogy and teaching practice are primarily about meeting market demands, and less about emboldening learners to transform inequitable power relations that pervade society. At the same time, we have seen a resurgence in discussions about the meanings, significance and usefulness of politicized pedagogies to learners and to our social world today (Crawford & Best, 2017; Hosein 2011; Patai and Koertge, 2003). Read more by downloading the PDF.

Activist Feminist Pedagogies: Privileging Agency in Troubled Times

Feminist Pedagogy in Higher Education: Critical Theory and Practice, 2015

Canada's Government fundamentally believes that women are equal." This misguided statement by then Status of Women Minister Bev Oda in 2006 was coincident with the removal of the word "equality" from government programs and policies, and a cut of more than 37 percent from the modest $13 million budget of Status of Women Canada. This decision was justified with reference to "fiscal responsibility and 'efficiency savings,' as well as an argument that the unit's mission had been fulfilled ... Funding guidelines were altered so that organizations engaged in advocacy, lobbying or research work became ineligible for support" (Bashevkin, 4; see also Muzak).

Speaking As, Speaking For and Speaking With: The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Men Teaching Feminism

This paper explores the possibilities and implications of certain poststructuralist feminisms for the practice of feminist teaching. It is also, in part, a reflection on the author's experiences in the college classroom as a man occupying the vexed position of male-feminist whose job is to teach about, write about, and speak about feminist philosophies. The issues at stake revolve around the possibility and/or desirability of men teaching feminism. The aim of the paper is to explore the tensions, dynamics, and pedagogical possibilities unique to a classroom setting where feminism in one of its many forms is the topic, the audience is primarily, or even exclusively, women and the instructor is a man. ARTICLE This paper occupies a precarious position at the intersection between theory and pedagogy. It is, in part, an exploration of the possibilities and implications of certain poststructuralist feminisms for the practice of feminist teaching. It is also, in part, a reflection on my own experiences in the college classroom as a man occupying the vexed position of male-feminist whose job is to teach about, write about, and speak about feminist philosophies. The issues at stake revolve around the possibility and/or desirability of men teaching feminism. My aim is to explore the tensions and pedagogical possibilities unique to a classroom setting where feminism in one of its many forms is the topic, the audience is primarily, or even exclusively, women and the instructor is a man. This situation is fairly new in academia, but as Women's Studies programs proliferate and more men along with more women receive feminist training it is one which is certain to increase. Given this, it is necessary to understand the new dynamics introduced into the feminist classroom by the presence of male instructors.

Feminist pedagogies in a time of backlash

Gender and Education, 2019

Gender equity in Australian schooling is no longer the policy focus that it once was. Within the contemporary secondary schooling system, teachers can find it challenging to enact feminist pedagogies. Using a narrative approach, we explore the experiences of two secondary teachers in Queensland. These teachers articulate the realities of using feminist pedagogies in a time dominated by reactionary politics and market-based schooling. Their stories suggest that their use of feminist pedagogies: is shaped by their feminist identities; have made them attuned to the gender politics of their school context; and can generate safe classroom spaces. The struggles and successes that they describe, as well as the confrontations and uncertainties that they face, reveal that while not easy, it is possible to utilise feminist pedagogies in a time of backlash.

Gendered subjects : the dynamics of feminist teaching

2013

Introduction. Part 1: Frameworks and Definitions 1. The politics of nurturance Margo Culley, Arlyn Diamond, Lee Edwards, Sara Lennox, Catherine Portuges 2. Taking women students seriously Adrienne Rich 3. Classroom pedagogy and the new scholarship on women Frances Maher 4. Women's Studies: a knowledge of one's own Janice G. Raymond 5. The educational process of Women's Studies in Argentina: reflections on theory and technique Gloria Bonder Part 2: Transforming the Disciplines 6. Feminist pedagogy as a subversive activity Robert J. Bezucha 7. Teaching mediation: a feminist perspective on the study of law Janet Rifkin 8. Staging the feminist classroom: a theoretical model Helene Keyssar Part 3: Teaching as Other 9. Pink elephants: confessions of a black feminist in an all-white, mostly male English department of a white university somewhere in God's country Erlene Stetson 10. Is there no room for me in the closet? Or, my life as the only lesbian professor Judith McDani...

Putting Feminist Pedagogy to the Test

Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2000

Critics of women's studies (WS) have charged that WS teaching overemphasizes students' personal experience and is overly politicized. They claim further that WS classes discourage critical, independent thinking and stifle open, participatory learning, causing student dlssatisfaction. This study provides empirical ebidence of the process of WS teaching from the perspective of 111 teachers and 789 of their students from 32 campuses in the United States. Contrary to WS critics, WS faculty and students reported strong emphases on critical thinkindopen-mindedness and participatory learning and relatively weaker emphases on personal experience and political understanding/ activism. In addition, student ratings of positive class impact were higher for WS than non-WS classes. The results support the pedagogic distinctiveness of women's studies.