'Our mailing list soon grew beyond one hundred names, so many of our colleagues are actively interested in this theme', Kleinherenbrink says. Over the past two years, they've organised several meetings to discuss relevant themes, practice intervisions, and strengthen their supportive network.
What is feminist pedagogy?
Feminist pedagogy emphasises teaching students to understand and study social justice concerning gender. It also encourages challenging gendered power inequalities in the classroom and the broader university setting. ‘So, it's not just teaching about feminism but teaching in a feminist way’ Kleinherenbrink explains. Feminist pedagogy aligns closely with other critical approaches to theory, method, and learning, such as anti-racist pedagogy and the decolonisation of the curriculum. Critical pedagogy has an emancipatory potential, as it fosters a deep awareness of inequalities and injustices, points to different ways of relating to each other and producing academic knowledge, and strives towards positive social transformation. This is what makes it so exciting and essential.
Challenging times
Feminist pedagogy is an uncommon approach to education because it questions unjust systems. As a result, it faces many challenges and resistance. These challenges can change based on the institutions involved and the larger social and political climate. ‘For example, we are currently experiencing intense public debates about so-called 'wokeness', and progressive politics (as well as fields of critical theory) are under threat’, Kleinherenbrink says.
We are currently experiencing intense public debates about so-called 'wokeness'
A call for dialogue and discovery
Kleinherenbrink stresses that internationally, we are increasingly seeing the banning of books, the firing of academics, the cancellation of courses or even entire programmes. For this reason, soon after they started FemPeC, her colleague and gender & diversity scientist Ea Utoft proposed to co-edit a special issue on this topic for the Tijdschrift voor Gender Studies (the Dutch/Flemish Journal for Gender Studies). 'We wanted to broaden the conversations we started with FemPeC with teachers outside of Radboud University. Our call for papers asked: what does it mean, and how do we manage to teach feminist theories/methods and to practice feminist pedagogy (as well as related critical theories and pedagogies) under these current conditions?' Kleinherenbrink explains.
The feminist classroom: what, why and how?
Teachers and students sent so many responses that they decided to make a double issue filled with research articles, essays, and even some poetry. This collection, titled "The Feminist Classroom: Pedagogies, Contestations, and Horizons", is an open-access publication and can be read online at Volume 27, Issue 2/3 | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online. Kleinherenbrink hopes this collection can inspire, support, and inform a wide range of lecturers, students, and anyone interested in what they do, why they do it, and how they do it.
