Feminist Pedagogy in the EFL Classroom in Japan: Evaluating a One‐Shot Intervention Approach

Abstract

At the turn of the century, bell hooks described the overarching lay view of feminism as a negative, man‐hating ideology. Despite the enormous societal overhauls that have occurred in the decades since, it appears that in Japan little has changed. The marginalized position that women occupy in Japanese society is starkly illustrated by Japan's continually low ranking on the Global Gender Gap Index. In this study, we use a single university lesson in advanced elective English classes to stage a one‐shot intervention in feminist pedagogy. The purpose of the study was to assess the students' understanding of and attitude toward feminism and issues related to male privilege before and after the class. We were also interested in evaluating the suitability of the English language class as a vehicle for feminist pedagogy. The results indicated that many students showed a shift in consciousness away from a largely negative view of feminism and an abstract understanding of gender inequality, to a more positive attitude toward feminism and a clearer understanding of the systemic nature of gender inequality. It also found that English language teaching classes were very conducive to feminist pedagogy with language input, group discussion, and reflective writing providing space for consciousness‐raising.