Page 77 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 77
mladenović ■ feminist classrooms in practice
that when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities, it is
not just the subject matter knowledge that counts, other competencies are
equally important. These other competencies include paying attention to
and building on children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected
things that happen on site; asking challenging questions that stimulate
further inquiries and creating a “situated presence” or giving the space to
the children and simply listening to their explanations (ibid.). All of these
situations create teaching and learning moments in feminist classrooms.
Primary and Secondary Education
Feminist classrooms are active classrooms that engage students in group
work activities and empower them to take control of their knowledge by
enriching classroom discussions with ideas and information from the out-
side world. As an English teacher, Nina stresses that language teaching
and learning is a specific environment where the ultimate goal is to get the
children to talk and converse with each other. The best way of encourag-
ing students, especially teenagers from the third triad of primary school
upwards, to talk is by asking them questions about themselves, focusing
on their personal experiences.
Each topic we cover, you have to ask for their opinions, what they
have done in their lives that makes them think so. Focus on their lived ex-
periences and not on the articles that are presented in textbooks.
One of Nina’s goals is to promote civil discourse, creating situations
in which the children work as a unit. Her classrooms are always open to
group discussions, which she believes are one of the best teaching and
learning situations for helping to improve students’ critical thinking, a
skill that is important in educational settings as well as in other areas of
life. She discovered that essay writing is easier for the students when the
topic they have to write about has previously been covered in a way that
includes their own experiences. Drawing from experience therefore bene-
fits students as it holds the potential to enrich the learning material, pro-
cess and outcomes, but it is also a positive teaching practice that can en-
hance the work of teachers. Nina talks about her personal experience and
how it has shaped her teaching.
When students take tests, they sometimes come up with answers that you did not
expect, but that grammatically work. I like to bring attention to those and go ‘this
is what I had in mind, a student /…/ wrote down this, which works perfectly here.
Why does it work? What made them think of that?’ /…/ This is /.../ because of my
personal experience, when I didn’t know how to spell baggage in high school, so I
75
that when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities, it is
not just the subject matter knowledge that counts, other competencies are
equally important. These other competencies include paying attention to
and building on children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected
things that happen on site; asking challenging questions that stimulate
further inquiries and creating a “situated presence” or giving the space to
the children and simply listening to their explanations (ibid.). All of these
situations create teaching and learning moments in feminist classrooms.
Primary and Secondary Education
Feminist classrooms are active classrooms that engage students in group
work activities and empower them to take control of their knowledge by
enriching classroom discussions with ideas and information from the out-
side world. As an English teacher, Nina stresses that language teaching
and learning is a specific environment where the ultimate goal is to get the
children to talk and converse with each other. The best way of encourag-
ing students, especially teenagers from the third triad of primary school
upwards, to talk is by asking them questions about themselves, focusing
on their personal experiences.
Each topic we cover, you have to ask for their opinions, what they
have done in their lives that makes them think so. Focus on their lived ex-
periences and not on the articles that are presented in textbooks.
One of Nina’s goals is to promote civil discourse, creating situations
in which the children work as a unit. Her classrooms are always open to
group discussions, which she believes are one of the best teaching and
learning situations for helping to improve students’ critical thinking, a
skill that is important in educational settings as well as in other areas of
life. She discovered that essay writing is easier for the students when the
topic they have to write about has previously been covered in a way that
includes their own experiences. Drawing from experience therefore bene-
fits students as it holds the potential to enrich the learning material, pro-
cess and outcomes, but it is also a positive teaching practice that can en-
hance the work of teachers. Nina talks about her personal experience and
how it has shaped her teaching.
When students take tests, they sometimes come up with answers that you did not
expect, but that grammatically work. I like to bring attention to those and go ‘this
is what I had in mind, a student /…/ wrote down this, which works perfectly here.
Why does it work? What made them think of that?’ /…/ This is /.../ because of my
personal experience, when I didn’t know how to spell baggage in high school, so I
75
