Engaging Undergraduates in Feminist Classrooms: An Exploration of Professors’ Practices

Abstract

This article reports the results of a feminist action research project that sought to ascertain professors' best practices for engaging undergraduates in feminist classrooms. In semi-structured interviews, professors recommended assigning readings from a variety of positionalities; creating a safe space for class discussion; relying on data to respond to student resistance; and including issues related to diversity, human identity, and social justice at a curricular level. The article concludes with a discussion of the author's experience implementing this advice in his own teaching for two years.Feminist pedagogies necessarily exist in tension and paradox, fraught with opportunities and challenges. With awareness that one cannot speak of a singular and monolithic feminist pedagogy, in general, we might expect that instructors who identify as feminists want to foster values of equality and freedom in their classrooms-even while institutional roles codify the instructorstudent relationship as hierarchal. Feminist instructors can likely agree that we want our students to become more aware of their own privileges and more capable in relationships and interactions with people from different groups (whether defined by gender, race, class, sexuality, or other axes of difference). Yet, we also want students to recognize that privilege resides not just at the level of the individual but, in fact, emerges as a result of complex structures and systems of power and oppression.Moreover, feminist instructors face impossible paradoxes as employees in institutions that are often organized hierarchically and who are implicated in those same structures and systems of power and oppression we want our students to recognize and resist. Some feminist instructors have institutional privilege and economic security in the form of tenure-track or tenured positions; those with tenure may feel safer to critique their own institutions and the uneven distribution of salary and power on which their institutions (and their own positions) rely. Contingent faculty and part-time faculty, though, have much to risk in offering more radical (or even liberal) points of view. These risks multiply for faculty members of color or who are queer or gender nonconforming, among others. Students, too, come to the classroom differently affected-privileged, disadvantaged, or often in some combination-by those same systems of power and oppression. Students' experiences and perceptions of their own privilege or disadvantage influence their

Feminist Pedagogy and the Socratic Method: Partners in the Classroom or a Disaster Waiting to Happen?

“…Several scholars note, however, that such discomfort must occur under the right conditions, including within a safe space (Spencer, 2015) and with enough time (see Pereira, 2012). According to Spencer (2015), creating a safe space was one of four key practices in feminist classrooms.…”

“…According to Spencer (2015), creating a safe space was one of four key practices in feminist classrooms. The current literature notes that because students often face discomfort and strong emotions during discussion, it is necessary to ensure a safe environment to confront that discomfort and those emotions (Spencer, 2015). The main technique we used to create this space was the creation a list of rules for discussion (e.g., must be respectful of each other's ideas) as suggested by the students.…”

A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

“…Care. Caring about others' emotional state is a common theme that arises in feminist pedagogical literature (Hooks, 1994;Johnson & Bhatt, 2003;Kazemek, 1989;Kishimoto & Mwangi, 2009;Musial, 2011;Noddings, 1992Noddings, & 2008Regan & Brooks, 1995;Spencer, 2015). Caring can be defined as having a fondness for the world and the people in it and developing a commitment to morally act on the behalf of others (Regan & Brooks, 1995).…”

“…29! Mwangi, 2009;Musial, 2011;Spencer, 2015;Watson, 2008). Diversity is defined as differences based on social categories like gender, race, sexuality, class, and others (Adams, 2013).…”

“…To accomplish inclusive diversity in a feminist setting, we must acknowledge that there are power differences in society and some groups have certain advantages and some groups have certain disadvantages (Spencer, 2015).…”