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What Is It?

Feminist pedagogy is a method of instruction which encourages the transformation of students from passive recipients of knowledge to active knowers who see themselves as agents of social change. It is employed most frequently in Women’s Studies classes, which aim to transform [students] from objects to subjects of inquiry. Feminist educators are driven by a vision of “a world which is not yet.” The standpoint of a feminist teacher is of the political nature and to help develop feminist analyses to inform and reform teachers’ and students’ ways of acting in and on the world.

The theoretical foundation of feminist pedagogy is grounded in the critical theories of learning and teaching such as Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Feminist pedagogy is an engaged process facilitated by concrete classroom goals in which members learn to respect each others differences, accomplish mutual goals, and help each other reach individual goals. This process facilitates participatory learning, validation of personal experience, encouragement of social understanding and activism, and the development of critical thinking and open-minds. Researchers state that classrooms built upon feminist pedagogy integrate the learning and experiences of participants. Feminist pedagogy recognizes power imbalances and limitations of traditional westernized learning praxis in school systems. Many instructors believe this style of teaching empowers students to a degree only possible with a sense of mutuality.

What Is Distinctive About Feminist Pedagogy?

Distinctive qualities of feminist pedagogy are the tradition of focusing on gendered subjects, and the opening of taboo topics for discussion. It is, at its core, about the feminist critique. Feminist educators work to replace old paradigms of education with a new one which focuses on the individual's experience alongside acknowledgment of one's the environment. It addresses the need for social change and focuses on educating the oppressed through strategies for empowering the self, building community, and ultimately developing leadership.

"Like Freire’s libratory pedagogy, feminist pedagogy is based on assumptions about power and consciousness-raising, acknowledges the existence of oppression as well as the possibility of ending it, and foregrounds the desire for and primary goal of social transformation. However feminist theorizing offers important complexities such as questioning the notion of a coherent social subject or essential identity, articulating the multifaceted and shifting nature of identities and oppressions, viewing the history and value of feminist consciousness-raising as distinct from Freirean methods, and focusing as much on the interrogation of the teacher’s consciousness and social location as the student’s."

History

Feminist pedagogy,initially referred to as "feminist liberators education", places issues of power as a central theme. The neologism feminist pedagogy was coined by feminist artist Judy Chicago in the 1980s, in order to integrate a wide rage of teaching styles. Feminist pedagogy was adopted by feminists in women studies programs and later adopted by men and women teaching various disciplines.Feminist pedagogy is grounded in critical pedagogy and feminist theory. Feminist pedagogy's development was influenced by Paulo Freire's, Pedagogy of the Oppressed,His work includes women as learners and attempts to create an education for women. The history of Feminist pedagogy isn't very well documented due to difficulty tracing it in a linear fashion due to its interdisciplinary nature

Six Principles of Feminist Pedagogy

Carolyn Shrewsbury proposes the six principles grounded in feminist pedagogy:

1. a reformation of the relationship between professor and student;
2. empowerment;
3. building community;
4. privileging voice;
5. respecting the diversity of personal experience; and
6. challenging traditional pedagogical notions.

Reformation

This way of teaching offers reformation of the typical relationship between an instructor and student, where the teacher is perceived to be an omniscient and authoritative figure and the student as the passive recipient of knowledge. Feminist Pedagogy is displayed when power and control becomes shared between the students and teacher. It is an active, collaborative classroom where risk-taking is encouraged; where intellectual excitement abounds; and where power is viewed as energy, capacity, and potential, rather than domination.

Empowerment

Empowerment is said to be the primary goal of Feminist Pedagogy. Empowerment involves the principles of democracy and shared power. Feminist Pedagogy challenges the view that education is a neutral cognitive process . Education either functions as an instrument facilitating students' integration and conformity into the logic of the present system, or it becomes "the practice of freedom" teaching men and women to deal critically and creatively with reality and to learn to participate in transforming their world . The practice of freedom emerges through empowerment, yet the patriarchal model generally neglected issues such as empowerment, feelings, and experiences .

Building Community

Feminist Pedagogy is concerned with building community and cooperation within the classroom as well as between the classroom and its broader environment. Developing a community of growth and caring is a key to critical/feminist education (Scering, 1997). "Because feminists value community and equality, building a trusting environment in which all members are respected and have an equal opportunity to participate is central" (Schniedewind, 1993, p. 18).

Privileging Voice

Privileging the individual voice as a way of knowing. Feminist Pedagogy encourages authority in others and views knowledge as constructed and culture-bound. "Fostering multiple authorities allows different classroom dynamics and voices to emerge. Authority shifts to students when they can interact and ask questions, where their feedback is actively sought and incorporated, and when faculty work to make themselves less intimidating and more approachable" (Middlecamp & Subramaniam, 1999, p. 521).

Respecting the Diversity of Personal Experience

"A community of students and teachers who work closely with one another and respect one another's sociohistorical development challenges hierarchical relations of schooling and involves social bonding within more democratic relations fundamental to schooling as a forum for critical democracy" (Scering, 1997, p. 66). Feminist theory privileges personal lived experiences as the basis for analysis, theory generation, activism, and research (Foss & Foss, 1994). Thus, a feminist pedagogy involves an emphasis on personal experience and validation (Chapman, 1997). Such a perspective results in several positive outcomes, including increased respect, enhanced empathy, better critical thinking skills, and broader understanding of truths.

Challenging Traditional Pedagogical Notions

Embedded within the previously discussed five principles is a sixth principle: challenging traditional views and practices. Feminist Pedagogy challenges the notion that knowledge and teaching methods can be value free. "Schools reproduce and reinforce the social construction of gender through the dichotomization of nurturance and autonomy, public and private, and masculine and feminine" (Scering, 1997). Further, 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 (Middlecamp & Subramaniam, 1999).

Influential Figures

Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire

The theorist, Paulo Freire is known for his works in the area of critical pedagogy. He penned Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968 (written in Portuguese, later published in English in 1970).
Freire believed that "education makes sense because women and men learn that through learning they can make and remake themselves, because women and men are able to take responsibility for themselves as beings capable of knowing — of knowing that they know and knowing that they don't" (Freire, 2004, p. 15)

Freire is also known for his disdain of what he called the "banking" concept of education, in which a student is viewed as an empty account waiting to be filled by the teacher. He said that "it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads men and women to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power" (Freire, 1970, p. 77)
His love for teaching, knowledge, the student, the student/teacher relationship, and the educational process has lead to his heavy influence on present feminist educators.

bell hooks

bell hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an accomplished writer and educator.
In Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, she argues that a teachers' use of control and power over students dulls the students' enthusiasm and teaches obedience to authority," confin[ing] each pupil to a rote, assembly-line approach to learning.” She advocated that universities encourage students and teachers to collaborate, making learning more relaxing while simultaneously exciting. She describes teaching as “a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged”.

Patti Lather

Patti Lather has taught qualitative research, feminist methodology, and gender and education at Ohio State University since 1988. She is the author of Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy With/in the Postmodern and Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts Toward a Double(d) Science. http://people.ehe.osu.edu/plather/

Henry Giroux

Henry Giroux is a leading expert in the field of critical pedagogy in the United States. He is an accomplished author, penning over 50 books and 300 academic articles on the subject of pedagogy and cultural studies. Giroux's most recent work focuses on public pedagogy, a term he coined to describe the nature of the spectacle and the new media, and the political and educational force it has on global culture.

Ileana Jiménez

Ileana Jiménez is a high school teacher in New York City who teaches courses on feminism, LGBT literature, Toni Morrison, and memoir writing. She is nationally known for her writing and speaking about inclusivity in high schools, her work to make schools safer spaces for LGBT students, and has won numerous awards for curriculum development. She was heavily influenced in her feminism and her pedagogy by bell hooks.

Practical Implementation

Feminist pedagogy creates spaces where student values and lived experiences are respected, especially those of women and marginalized students. Feminist pedagogy practices decentering the classroom to give students the opportunity to voice their perspectives, realities, knowledge, and needs .

The main theme in feminist pedagogy emphasizes the importance of working towards transforming the teacher and student relationship. Under this teaching method, educators seek to empower students by offering opportunities for critical thinking, self analysis, and development of voice. Above all, feminist pedagogy challenges lectures, memorization, and tests as methods for developing and transferring knowledge . One practical application of feminist pedagogy is evident in the power and authority of the feminist educator. Feminist pedagogy maintains that power in the classroom should be delicately balanced between teacher and students in order to inform curriculum and classroom practices. The sharing of power creates a space for dialogue that reflects the multiple voices and realities of the students.

By sharing the power, to promote voice among students, the educator and students move to a more equal position in which students produce knowledge. The shared power also decentralizes dominant traditional understandings of learning.