Written by Emily Cranston
October 19, 2021
“Feminist Pedagogy” – until recently, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what this term meant. I might have taken a guess, and sloppily attributed its meaning to the combined definition of “feminist” and “pedagogy”, but as I have recently learned, this term is more than just the sum of its parts. Feminist pedagogy is a philosophy that envisions the classroom environment free of power dynamics, that is, one that is not entrenched in sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, and other degrading belief systems, wherein collaborative learning, continuous self-reflection, and active engagement are highly valued (Shrewsbury, 1993). It stands to go against what Paulo Freire, a theorist in the field of critical pedagogy, refers to as “the banking model of education” which depicts students as empty and waiting for the teacher to fill them with knowledge (Freire, 1968).
I stumbled upon this term when reading Clare Daniel’s article “The Uses of Feminist Pedagogy Before, During, and After the Pandemic” (2021). Daniel works at the Newcomb Institute of Tulane University in New Orleans, and in this article, she talks about her experience with using feminist pedagogy for online teaching in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel expresses that “As feminist educators, we had employed many tenets of feminist pedagogy in the classroom for years: treating students as co-educators; working to build equity, trust, mutual respect, and support; examining how knowledge is constructed and how gender, intersecting with other social categories, shapes our lives, learning, knowledge production, and access to resources.” However, with the switch to distance education, maintaining these practices would inevitably look different. Daniel and her colleague, Jacquelyn Thoni Howard, became aware of a greater need for instructors to examine their pedagogical methods in order to best engage and teach students. This need was demonstrated by the thousands of views they received when sharing a resource guide on Twitter, and what led to the creation of an online resource for feminist pedagogy with a specific emphasis on online and hybrid teaching (found here).
I think it is important to examine the reasons why this guide and the practices of feminist pedagogy are so desperately needed. Daniel points out the increased burden of care that COVID-19 has put on women in ways that emphasize the greater patriarchal society in which most developed Western countries have created. Insofar that home-schooling, caring for children and extended family, and other care labor roles have been primarily hoisted onto women, majorly women of color, who have been disproportionately affected by job loss due to the pandemic. Therefore, “In order to teach and to learn, we must be able to make connections between course content and our personal experiences. We must work to cultivate online learning environments in which we recognize how material circumstances (e.g., whether one has a job or job security, how hungry, stressed, or depressed one is, etc.) shape our ability to learn and teach.” (Daniel, 2021).
The pandemic has disrupted the stability of many lives, particularly in terms of support and resources available to students. Furthermore, the expectation that students are to perform as well as they would have in-person is too often assumed, with varying magnitudes at all levels of education, without acknowledgement of the lived experience in the educational environment. A key component of feminist pedagogy is the value placed on using an individual’s experiences as a source of information, which is often neglected in academic work (Henderson, 2021). This promotes a shift in thinking rather than just the acquisition of new knowledge (Henderson, 2021). Daniel shares how herself and colleagues “…saw how social unrest resulting from heightened awareness about racial injustice affected our students, especially our students of color, and how political unrest surrounding the 2020 election, infused with racism and misogyny, affected them as well.” And further highlights how “Feminist pedagogy… provides us with some strategies for making sure that our online teaching is not soulless, disembodied, and isolating for everyone involved.”
Daniel’s story of shaping her approach to distance teaching by infusing principles of feminist pedagogy in her practices in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and sharing resources for use by other instructors is truly inspiring. Daniel and her colleague’s willingness and enthusiasm to go “above and beyond” the expectations of most teaching roles somewhat challenges the traditional views of education delivery. In fact, one of the six central components of feminist pedagogy, as stated by Webb et al., is challenging tradition views in the sense that “feminist teachers challenge the origins of ideas and theories, the positions of their promoters, and the factors influencing how knowledge comes to exist in its present form.” (2002). The acknowledgement Daniel gives to an individual’s experiences is in part a way to divert the superior value often placed on a teacher’s experiences and knowledge that is commonplace in Western education.
My deep dive into what feminist pedagogy entails and how it stands to improve the educational experience for students has me questioning why I have only heard this term now and why it has not been more widely incorporated. But reflecting on my own experiences, as someone who has held teaching roles and has been a student for most of my life, it may not be that these principles are not being utilized by current teachers, but rather my new awareness of this term has simply put a ‘name to the face’. Moreover, this philosophy has provided me with a detailed roadmap of how to become a better teacher, in whatever capacity that may be, and my hope is that these principles become increasingly important to educators and students, both in and out of the context of COVID-19.
Sources:
Daniel, C. (2021, May 3). The Uses of Feminist Pedagogy Before, During, and After the Pandemic. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/equality-inclusion-and-diversity/the-uses-of-feminist-pedagogy-before-during-and-after-the-pandemic/
Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press.
Henderson, E.F. (n.d.). Feminist Pedagogy. Gender and Education Association. http://www.genderandeducation.com/issues/feminist-pedagogy/
Shrewsbury, C.M. (1997). What Is Feminist Pedagogy?. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 1, 168-173.
Webb, L.M., Allen, M.W., & Walker, K.L. (2002). Feminist Pedagogy: Identifying Basic Principles. Academic Exchange.
Image source: https://www.ywcatoronto.org/blog/12-Feminist-Resolutions-for-2019 By Camila Rosa
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