Feminist Teaching

Este texto tiene como propósito aportar lineamientos generales que abonen a la narración de una genealogía de los feminismos jurídicos en Argentina. Dada la amplitud incontenible del movimiento feminista, me concentraré aquí en un ámbito particular, atendiendo a las repercusiones logradas en las filas de la academia jurídica. Para esta tarea, me interesa recuperar los derroteros que llevan a la denominación de los feminismos jurídicos, y los efectos de importación o imposición que este nombre implica para la producción de conocimiento regional latinoamericano, escenario de obligada atención de los feminismos argentinos. Por fin, para dar cuenta de algunas especificidades del ámbito nacional, considero importante señalar no solo las transformaciones que las incursiones feministas generaron con éxito en el ámbito universitario del derecho, sino también, y sobre todo, recuperar limitaciones y malestares con que se encuentran quienes de manera deliberada llevan adelante esos cambios. Para ello, repondré algunas reflexiones a través de las voces de actoras clave y de la observación participante de distintos eventos académicos.

En los inicios del siglo XXI las viejas formas de sexismo conviven con nuevos discursos y violencias contra las mujeres. La juventud nacida en la igualdad formal incorpora estas actitudes a menudo transmitidas desde los medios de comunicación, pero también desde la comunidad educativa. Este artículo profundiza en los conocimientos y limitaciones del profesorado para abordar esta situación a partir de un estudio cualitativo en un centro de secundaria de Cantabria (España). Las entrevistas muestran la falta de recursos cognitivos, didácticos y estructurales para llevar a cabo una docencia feminista que promueva la igualdad de oportunidades en la juventud. Asimismo, evidencian dobles discursos en torno a la igualdad que pueden enmarcarse en el actual escenario de reacción a las demandas feministas.

At the beginning of the 21st century, old forms of sexism coexist with new discourses and violence against women. Younger generations, born in formally egalitarian societies assimilate these attitudes often broadcasted from media but also from educational community. This paper delves into knowledges and limitations of High School teachers to deal with this situation based on a qualitative study in a secondary school of Cantabria (Spain). The interviews show the lack of cognitive, didactic and structural resources to carry out a feminist teaching that promotes equal opportunities among youth. In addition, they demonstrate double discourses on equality that can be framed in the current backlash against feminist demands.

La preocupación de las feministas por ser críticas de sus ámbitos de
estudio ha dado lugar a la creación de espacios donde se cruzan las
críticas sobre los contenidos dominantes de los cursos y la presencia de
las mujeres tanto en la producción académica, como en la perspectiva
de género adoptada en la enseñanza del derecho. Esta necesidad por
entender y problematizar las vidas de las mujeres ha llevado a que las
feministas se pregunten sobre los cánones establecidos en el derecho
y sobre la noción de neutralidad que parece conducir la discusión al
respecto y su aparente objetividad. La necesidad de abrir este tipo de
discusiones requiere habilitar espacios alternativos de discusión. Es allí
donde los círculos de lectura, como el Ciclo de Lecturas, se presentan
como herramientas para nutrir la formación académica en los debates
actuales y tradicionales sobre el feminismo. Estas apuestas por espacios
alternativos hacen parte de la historia de las mujeres y sus luchas,
fortalecen la sororidad y generan preguntas en torno a la necesidad
de cambios que muevan la agenda de las mujeres del margen hacia el
centro de las discusiones universitarias

In the past I have typically used the first five minutes of class to take attendance, make small talk with students, or announce updates to the course schedule. Now, I tweet with my class. Despite the ideal in feminist pedagogy of decentering power in the classroom[i], the opening of a course meeting can often reinforce the hierarchical model of the instructor’s authority. An instructor-focused opening sends a message that the course will be prescriptive, delivered by the professor, and assessed by grades alone. Addressing the class with open-ended questions such as “What did you think of the reading?” puts students on the spot and tends to elicit responses only from those comfortable with oral communication in front of the whole class. When that happens, the voices of minoritized students or students who may have differing ideas about the reading may be silenced. Instead, if the class opens with every student posting a tweet that appears on a classroom screen, the instructor has access to a broader base of engaged responses to guide discussion with. The more consistent this practice is, the more students come to expect it and feel confident posting questions, reactions, and responses in their shared classroom discourse.
For feminist and active learning pedagogues, it can be a challenge to create community and guide students to engage deeply with course texts. Susan Alexander and Sonalini Sapra attest to the pervasiveness of millennial students’ engagement with social media, which poses an exciting opportunity for instructors to influence the use of these tools in the classroom.[ii] After reading a 2016 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by James Lang titled “Small Changes in Teaching: The First Five Minutes,” I was inspired to make the opening of my class more reflective of my pedagogy, which is grounded in my commitments to feminism and active learning. In my 200-level International Women’s Issues course, I ask students to use Twitter as a platform through which to reflect on the readings and respond to each other for the first five minutes of every class. It has been my experience that making a virtual space for student voices at the beginning of class, through public social media like Twitter, influences the environment of the course in ways that create and maintain a feminist classroom.
When I began this teaching experiment with Twitter, I was interested in finding out if consistently opening class with students’ voices via a hashtag stream of class tweets would improve learning outcomes and support my efforts to create a feminist classroom. I offer this example of teaching with Twitter in the first five minutes of class as a description of a pedagogical strategy of transformative learning that merits further study for its feminist potential to unsettle roles of instructor and student, to create community, and to stimulate active learning. This teaching experience could translate to other disciplines where instructors are concerned with centralizing student voices and disrupting the top-down delivery of the class opening. While there are some notable articles about social media as a tool of feminism, use of Twitter as both a feminist and a pedagogical tool is an understudied practice.[iii]

Published on Nov 2, 2015
Popular culture is a cunning, persuasive - and pervasive - "educator" that influences students' ideas about gender and sexuality 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yet Dr. Kristin Lieb believes that while teachers may only have students for a few hours a week, they can interrupt the institutionalized misogyny being spread by popular culture and teach more accurate lessons about girls and women. And the best tool to do this, Dr. Lieb says: Pop Culture itself.

Dr. Kristin J. Lieb is an Associate Professor of Marketing Communication at Emerson College. Before arriving at Emerson, Lieb held numerous marketing and business development positions in the music industry, including posts with Atomic Pop and Newbury Comics Interactive. She also worked as a researcher for Harvard Business School and as a freelance writer for Billboard and Rolling Stone. Lieb published her first book, Gender, Branding, and The Modern Music Industry: The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars, with Routledge in 2013.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Référence : Bachmann, Laurence (2012). "Barrie Thorne. Largesse et créativité féministe au service de l'éducation publique". Nouvelles Questions Féministes, 31 (2), pp.102-115. Barrie Thorne. Largesse et créativité féministe au service de l'éducation publique Barrie Thorne -titulaire de la chaire d'études genre et d'études sur les femmes, professeure de sociologie à l'Université de Californie, Berkeley -participe depuis plus de quarante ans à l'effort collectif visant à intégrer le féminisme dans le monde universitaire aux États-Unis. Elle mène un combat sans relâche pour défendre les femmes et les études genre dans l'enseignement supérieur. Sociologue créative, elle est aussi une excellente mentore et pédagogue. Je l'ai interviewée sur le campus en février 2012, quelques mois avant sa retraite.