Feminist Pedagogy from Pre-Access to Post-Truth: A Genealogical Literature Review

Abstract

This paper traces the development of feminist pedagogy from its origin as a revolution to the male-dominated postsecondary curriculums of the 1960s to its current forms as a classroom and community pedagogy that intentionally troubles, politicizes, and transforms educational experiences. The present paper is a literature review of feminist pedagogy that follows the genealogical method, which is the examination of the genealogy of a particular theory or research focus and traces the earliest framing and articulation of that scholarly topic through several generations of the development of scholarly topic to the present. While feminist pedagogy originated as a method of teaching about feminist issues, it has become a distinct pedagogy that has been adapted in various educational settings; what remains is the conscious consideration of the methods, styles, and strategies of feminist pedagogy. Along with discussing scholarship on the women’s movement and other social and cultural phenomena that shaped feminist theory and practice, I synthesize articles and books on feminist pedagogy. Considering its history, I discuss the contemporary state of feminist pedagogy. I conclude that feminist pedagogy in its current form is implicated in a complex political climate that simultaneously calls for and threatens it.