Page 58 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 58
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 5–6
In our previously described case of the mother–daughter relationship,
such an object consists of experiential value and gained knowledge, which
are embodied by psycho-somatic experience in the two-way transfer going
on between two equivalent instances, a teacher and a student, or a group
of students. The sharing of experiences of the student/students and the
teacher with the aim to articulate certain theoretic perspectives and inter-
pretations is felt in their bodies. There are our embodied selves revolving
around matrices of the unequal power relations women experience in the
realm of private life. Such experiences are often reduced to a strongly felt
psychologic interpretation, and in the mutual exchange of thoughts and
emotions we become aware of the socio-cultural and political dimensions
of the exposed interpersonal relationship.
The presented matrix of the “triangulation” of feminist pedagogy
comprises the complex interrelation of student/students, the “object”, a
teacher, and has to be theoretically tested. “Object” is the subject mat-
ter vivified and substantialised by the force of attractive interpretations
and sensations. The question is how to achieve conceptual stability of the
hereby construed “triangulation”. Mutual teaching/learning via the ob-
ject of the embodied coupling of knowledge and experience is as follows
compared to the argumentation of a liberating, democratised education.
Carolyn M. Shrewsbury elaborated pedagogy in the framework of the
embodied teaching/learning process by focusing on the conceptual tool
for “overcoming oppressions”, empowerment. The very concept of power
comes from the affirmation of the Foucauldian discourse implicating em-
bodiment. The problematic side of the idea of empowerment is that it con-
veys the meaning of a one-way transfer of power from the teacher to the
students (Shrewsbury, 1993, p. 10). “Empowering pedagogy does not dis-
solve the authority or the power of the instructor. It does move from pow-
er as domination to power as creative energy” (ibid, p. 11). Although the
relationship of domination of the teachers over the students is interpret-
ed as being deconstructed by “empowering pedagogy” and its reconcep-
tualisation of power which is anyway constructive, there are two strong
reasons to doubt such an interpretation. Teachers are subjected in the ac-
ademic environment as are students, and they work and study in the same
phalocratic and thus highly hierarchical structure. If they maintain the
idea of authority and endow it with the embodied energetic message of
the energy, they cannot deny the persistent unequal relationship of giv-
ing or offering and thus having and – as their counterparts – the receiv-
ing students, who do not have it, i.e. the energy and its benefits. Besides,
the concept of authority is even not relativised. The fact that students have
their own experiences which may inform “the instructor” when inquiring
56
In our previously described case of the mother–daughter relationship,
such an object consists of experiential value and gained knowledge, which
are embodied by psycho-somatic experience in the two-way transfer going
on between two equivalent instances, a teacher and a student, or a group
of students. The sharing of experiences of the student/students and the
teacher with the aim to articulate certain theoretic perspectives and inter-
pretations is felt in their bodies. There are our embodied selves revolving
around matrices of the unequal power relations women experience in the
realm of private life. Such experiences are often reduced to a strongly felt
psychologic interpretation, and in the mutual exchange of thoughts and
emotions we become aware of the socio-cultural and political dimensions
of the exposed interpersonal relationship.
The presented matrix of the “triangulation” of feminist pedagogy
comprises the complex interrelation of student/students, the “object”, a
teacher, and has to be theoretically tested. “Object” is the subject mat-
ter vivified and substantialised by the force of attractive interpretations
and sensations. The question is how to achieve conceptual stability of the
hereby construed “triangulation”. Mutual teaching/learning via the ob-
ject of the embodied coupling of knowledge and experience is as follows
compared to the argumentation of a liberating, democratised education.
Carolyn M. Shrewsbury elaborated pedagogy in the framework of the
embodied teaching/learning process by focusing on the conceptual tool
for “overcoming oppressions”, empowerment. The very concept of power
comes from the affirmation of the Foucauldian discourse implicating em-
bodiment. The problematic side of the idea of empowerment is that it con-
veys the meaning of a one-way transfer of power from the teacher to the
students (Shrewsbury, 1993, p. 10). “Empowering pedagogy does not dis-
solve the authority or the power of the instructor. It does move from pow-
er as domination to power as creative energy” (ibid, p. 11). Although the
relationship of domination of the teachers over the students is interpret-
ed as being deconstructed by “empowering pedagogy” and its reconcep-
tualisation of power which is anyway constructive, there are two strong
reasons to doubt such an interpretation. Teachers are subjected in the ac-
ademic environment as are students, and they work and study in the same
phalocratic and thus highly hierarchical structure. If they maintain the
idea of authority and endow it with the embodied energetic message of
the energy, they cannot deny the persistent unequal relationship of giv-
ing or offering and thus having and – as their counterparts – the receiv-
ing students, who do not have it, i.e. the energy and its benefits. Besides,
the concept of authority is even not relativised. The fact that students have
their own experiences which may inform “the instructor” when inquiring
56
