On Our Minds, Spring 1992

FEMINIST PEDAGOGY: THOUGHTS AND STRATEGIES by Shirley C. Parry In the Maryland Community College FIPSE-sponsored curriculum transformation project, faculty participants looked long and hard at pedagogy. Feminist teachers involved in curriculum transformation have long recognized that changing what we teach also involves changing how we teach. This article outlines the major theoretical issues that, in our view, underlie feminist pedagogy and then describes in detail a model class exercise that we found particularly successful in incorporating feminist principles into the classroom. The basic theoretical issue addressed by feminist pedagogy is power in the classroom. Students participate in three major power relationships that feminist teachers are concerned with. The first is the relationship between the student and the course material. Traditionally, teachers convey course information as if it is objective truth and accord it the weight--the power-- that Truth has. In this dynamic, the student is by definition the passive recipient of the body of material and is encouraged to learn it as presented. Instructors who are uncomfortable with this dynamic often try to develop teaching techniques that help students be more "active" learners: thus, you can work on classroom strategies that put greater emphasis on class discussion as a vehicle to get the material across. Feminist teachers employ these techniques and find them valuable. But the important thing that feminist pedagogy does--and what makes it feminist--is address the power relationship itself: the relationship between the information, the powerful "truths" being taught and the traditionally powerless student. When we realire that the "objective truth" we are teaching is really only one version of reality, a version that reflects the perspectives of particular people ( usually men) of a certain race and class ( usually white and privileged) at a moment in history, then truth takes on a different meaning. As our attitude toward our subject matter changes, so does our view of the relation of the student to it. This does not mean that anything g~s in the classroom or that we tolerate sloppy thinking. But it does mean that we become open to different realities, to different ways of looking at course material. And it means that we become more genuinely interested in what our students have to say, A newsletter of the Women's Studies Program Towson State Unviersity Baltimore, MD 21204 Spring 1992 Vol. VI, No. 1 that discussion techniques are employed not just as a way to make things more lively in class, but as a way to get at new and valid truths. An approach like this sees the student not as recipient, but as an active participant in the exploration of a field. Students in classes conceived this way report an enhanced sense of mastery and increased confidence in their ability to undertake a further examination of the subject. The second major power relationship that feminist teachers address is that between the student and the faculty member. This is closely related to the relationship between the student and the information. When the student-teacher power relationship is reconceptualized, rather than being the powerful expert, the imparter of information, the in- Continued Page 7 FEMINIST CHALLENGES TO THE CURRICULUM by Sara Coulter "I don't believe that I have taken any other course that has made me think as much as this course has." "Of all the classes I have taken during my college career, I feel this class has had the most relevant material applicable to my everyday life." "I have learned more than just facts and information. I have regained the feeling that I can make a difference in this world." "This course has vindicated and changed my feeling.s and perceptions in such a way that I will never listen to a lecture or read a textbook in the same way again." These are typical responses of students in "Women's Studies 370: Feminist Challenges to the Curriculum" that I taught for the first time in the Fall 1991. In fact, the students actually taught the course, and I just created the structure, helped locate materials, and invited faculty as guest Continued Page 6