Page 69 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 69
Feminist Classrooms in Practice
Ana Mladenović, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction
Feminist pedagogy is a theory about teaching that can be used in dif-
ferent ways on all levels of education. The foundations of feminist
pedagogy are built upon the core ideas that may be traced back to
the emergence of critical pedagogy, which was a product of dissatisfac-
tion with the relationship between schools and structural and cultural
inequalities. These concerns guided progressive educators, such as Paulo
Freire, in the late 1960s and early 1970s to criticise traditional pedago-
gies because they are authoritarian, limit the learner to a passive role in
the teaching and learning process, and fail to produce a type of political
knowledge that results in social action (i.e. that exposes and challenges the
(re)production of oppressive (raced, classed, gendered etc.) relationships),
as Audrey Thompson and Andrew Gitlin explain (1995, p. 125). The pur-
pose of critical pedagogy was thus to alter the school’s role in reproducing
these relations by attempting to establish a more egalitarian relationship
amongst pedagogical participants and enabling those typically silenced by
schooling to become active and critical subjects. The transformative pow-
er of critical pedagogy can be seen in producing such political knowledge
that allows for self-reflexivity of critical subjects’ own position, which is
of their alienation, along with the progress toward liberation (ibid.). This
critical element is also an integral part of feminist pedagogy.
The nature of the content or which topics are deemed crucial is an
important aspect of feminist pedagogy, as are its goals, materials and
methods used. This paper, however, focuses primarily on the teaching
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(5-6)67-82 67
Original scientific article
Ana Mladenović, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction
Feminist pedagogy is a theory about teaching that can be used in dif-
ferent ways on all levels of education. The foundations of feminist
pedagogy are built upon the core ideas that may be traced back to
the emergence of critical pedagogy, which was a product of dissatisfac-
tion with the relationship between schools and structural and cultural
inequalities. These concerns guided progressive educators, such as Paulo
Freire, in the late 1960s and early 1970s to criticise traditional pedago-
gies because they are authoritarian, limit the learner to a passive role in
the teaching and learning process, and fail to produce a type of political
knowledge that results in social action (i.e. that exposes and challenges the
(re)production of oppressive (raced, classed, gendered etc.) relationships),
as Audrey Thompson and Andrew Gitlin explain (1995, p. 125). The pur-
pose of critical pedagogy was thus to alter the school’s role in reproducing
these relations by attempting to establish a more egalitarian relationship
amongst pedagogical participants and enabling those typically silenced by
schooling to become active and critical subjects. The transformative pow-
er of critical pedagogy can be seen in producing such political knowledge
that allows for self-reflexivity of critical subjects’ own position, which is
of their alienation, along with the progress toward liberation (ibid.). This
critical element is also an integral part of feminist pedagogy.
The nature of the content or which topics are deemed crucial is an
important aspect of feminist pedagogy, as are its goals, materials and
methods used. This paper, however, focuses primarily on the teaching
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(5-6)67-82 67
Original scientific article
