The power dynamic in the classroom has varied throughout societal changes in power, race, class, and gender. What is Feminist Pedagogy? by Carolyn M. Shrewsberry imagines a new classroom that is based in feminist pedagogy. Shrewsberry considers certain tools instrumental to her ideal environment. For example, she defines leadership as a tool in the classroom that is “a special form of empowerment that empowers others.” The classroom in which leadership, empowerment, and community are exercised in their most positive capacities are a rarity; yet, they remain the vision of feminist pedagogy. “How can we reimagine the classroom?” seemed to be the theme that tied both the readings What is Feminist Pedagogy? and Black Feminist Pedagogy together. Feminist pedagogy also encapsulates engaging the classroom in a way that goes beyond sexism, homophobia, and classism.
Personally, the element of her reimagined classroom that stood out the most to me from the reading was what Shrewsberry calls the “liberatory classroom,” where she imagines students and the teachers learning to respect each individual’s differences, and remove the presence of fear in the power dynamics often found among them. In other words, the fear that is present at times in classroom creates power dynamics that enstrange students and teachers from one another. The “liberatory classroom,” based in feminist pedagogy, seeks also seeks to restructure the classroom by bringing those unspoken biases that society has accepted for so long, exposing them, discussing them in the classroom, and restructure the classroom accordingly. This strategy is aimed at eliminating fear of one another and of conversation, and that’s why I believe it will be affective.
“The classroom becomes an important place to connect to our roots, our past, and to envision the future” (8). However, such a classroom needs to be created in the absence of fear, but fear holds a dominant presence in the classroom if the economic, gender, and social differences are kept so quiet that those in the classroom begin the fear conversations and connections with each other due to a lack of understanding of various backgrounds. As Shrewsberry says, “we must learn to respect our differences rather than fear them.”
Another place where fear comes from is fear of one’s own ignorance. We live in a culture where some people are intentionally offensive, but even more so, we live in a culture where those who want to be better participants in society notice those ignorant, offensive people and fear that they themselves will become one of them. I believe this results in many of the silences we witness as college students in the classroom when complicated societal topics are brought up. A fear to speak, to ask questions, and to expose discriminatory stigmas based on their fear that they do not have knowledge of the topic at hand, due to a lack of experience with the topic at hand. I see the “liberatory classroom” as a method in which we can use to not only deconstruct those fears in the classroom, but to encourage and surface such conversations.
I think Shrewsberry points out two very specific and useful tools that can practically be implemented into a classroom setting. The first is making the act of respectful questioning of one another a norm, and the second is respectfully making it explicit when a student or teacher has an assumption about someone in the class. Practically, this will take both a willingness to be humble and a willingness to speak up, which are difficult things for a teacher to implement in a classroom, but a persona that teachers could model for their students. Being able to respectfully question one another, admit biases, respectfully point out biases, and asking questions without attempting to destroying another’s perspective is the ultimate ideal of the feminist classroom. This ideal “empowered creative energy” I believe can lessen the biases between those in the classroom, and ultimately encourage conversations that close the gap people have between fear and ignorance. In other words- we must create an environment where we can inform without offending, and learn without arrogance.
I think a perfect example of how fear can take over the classroom is represented in the reading Black Feminist Pedagogy by Barbara Omolade, who brought to light a narrative I could have never imagined myself, but I was very grateful to hear of her experiences. Barbra, the author of the article, is an African American female. She accepted a position in a Black Women Studies course. She was an ideal candidate for the job because she was completing her MA in Black Women’s Motherhood. Barbra reported feeling an instant obligation and sisterhood to the black women in her class. “Like myself, the average student is a thirty-five-year-old Black working woman who heads her own household and is employed in one of the city agencies,” Omolade expressed (34). Omolade says at first she tried to not even consider the class difference between her and her students. She didn’t want to acknowledge the power difference among her and the black women she was teaching. As she was someone who was once in the place of those in her classroom- a person of color who was unemployed or working an administrative job- she was very fearful of coming across as judgmental to the women in her class. She was frustrated with herself for beginning to think of them as unintelligent. When she brought it up tp her colleagues, she had a moment of realization when her coworker said, out, “Barbara, you just feel ashamed of their ignorance, because they are a reflection of you. You see yourself in them and get angry when they don’t measure up” (34). I think a lot of us fall under this category- of not only judging one another in the classroom, but also feeling judgement towards our classmates and teachers because we feel like they represent us in some way. Omolde’s fear of discussing classism in her classroom created a disconnect and eventually a resentment between her and her students, even though she related to them a great deal.
In light of these readings, I want to ask you all three questions to get us thinking about how fear is implemented into the classroom, and how we can eliminate it in a practical way.
- What is a specific conversation (ie, race, class, gender identity, etc.) in which you believe classmates and or teachers might be afraid to talk about in a classroom setting, and why?
- Can you give an example of what a “liberatory classroom” that Shrewsberry discusses might look like?
- If you feel comfortable sharing, in what ways have you experienced fear and/or discrimination in a classroom setting?
Works Cited
Shrewsbury, Carolyn. What is Feminist Pedagogy? 1993.
Omolade, Barbara. A Black Feminist Pedagogy. 1987.
Dear Cameron, Thank you for your thoughtful post.
When I consider the “Liberatory Classroom”, I find myself thinking of one concrete example that we all could practice and one giant sea-change that few of us may ever experience. For the concrete example, in the required inclusive classrooms course all teachers have to take at SUNY Cortland, we learned a great skill: set up classroom rules that address how each member of the society will behave. This is exactly what we did in our contract; it is exactly what an elementary school teachers might do with a poster on the wall. But explicitly stating that we will commit to repecting in each other and asking honest questions seeking honest answers is something every teacher can do.
The sea-change is harder: to reduce class sizes and multiply classes so that no more than a dozen students are learning from one adult. The advantages to small classes are both obvious and implicit. Children will get more individualized instruction, have more opportunities to talk, ask questions and answer each other. It also allows teachers the opportunity to be able to police bad behavior without having to resort to “no-talking”, “sit in the hall” and shouting down students. It would also be less intimidating for students as they would not have to advertise ignorance before a large crowd to ask a question. After all, adults in a class of thirty rarely ask questions — why should kids act differently.
This is a radical change and it would require a radical redeployment of resources. I would look at reducing capital building project funding (ie the pot of money that provides money for physical places) in favor of increasing funding in order to hire more teachers, In NY, this would mean radical reallocation of state budget funds and that is not easy to do.
Hi Cam,
Your blog does a really good job of highlighting and explaining the ideas of a liberatory classroom. I especially loved your point about fear, the absence of it. I think fear is definitely a factor that holds the ‘traditional classroom’ back from becoming a liberatory classroom that Shrewsberry imagines.
I think that even the most well-meaning of teachers have a bit of fear when it comes to discussing difficult topics of identity and the societal impacts of those. I think we all have a bit of fear of saying the wrong thing; fear of coming across prejudiced or ignorant. I know my first instinct when I hear someone say something that sounds racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. is to cringe and then judgment of that person comes in. That is the power dynamic that is often created in classrooms. Both teachers and students are afraid to speak up and that creates silence. In silence, no one is learning; discussion is the only way learning occurs.
The dream classroom that I want to create is a place where everyone, students, and teacher, all collaborate and discuss the topic. Creating an equal power dynamic, where the teacher and students are both able to speak, think, hypothesize, and create without inhibition. I think that is a system that could be applied all the way down to the kindergarten level. The teacher would have to guide the class in some aspects, but the ultimate goal would be to be learning and working together to create a culmination of that learning.
My ideal classroom would emphasize learning without testing. Currently, in schools, the way students prove that they have learned the curriculum is their grade on a test. There are so many studies that prove that test grades do not always reflect understanding and achievement. With that in mind, my ideal classroom would not test, but the class would work together in their learning to create a final project that represents the culmination of all they have learned.
I think there is so much more we can be doing in the classroom that would change the way we learn and interact in the world.
Hey Cameron,
I’m gonna try and answer these in the order you’ve posed them!
I think conversations around race have always felt very “stepping on eggshells” especially in light of the last four years, and even more so within the past six months. What interests me about this conversation in particular is the complete surrender of the conversation to the non-white people in the classroom. Especially in undergrad, there’s this sticky hesitation to engage in the conversation, almost like an overhanging sense of guilt is convincing white students to remain silent for fear of adding to the issue, or becoming the embodiment of it right then and there. But this is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: you don’t engage in conversation because you’re afraid of reifying white silence or ones own ignorance, and in doing so prevent yourself from learning the very things that would aid in your understanding and empathy, which further put you at risk of saying or doing something that could be perceived as ignorant or racist. To add to the already national-level hesitance surrounding conversations of race, there has been an increase in awareness around LGBTQ+ matters which has garnered reactions akin to throwing a toad in boiling water for some. Phrases like “it has nothing to do with me” or “just don’t flaunt it in my face” have become “neutral” reactions to make the rise in conversation more “palatable” to the everyday person. It makes people uncomfortable to discuss these things because they are far from the societal norm, and very openly challenges the how and why of everyday life. I feel like class has become a supporting statistic in both of these discussions, and at times it seems to be the cause of so many problems (healthcare, access to education etc.) but it has become a complicating factor, an intersection that crosses many other lines.
I think the liberatory classroom looks more student/teacher collaborative effort (similar to Omolade’s) as well as that idea of a respectful questioning of one another and the larger structures in place. However, I believe we would need to work towards structuring our thinking around ideas of development and improvement rather than the current scheme of basic subsistent and survival.
Honestly I think that there’s a huge change in expectation when you hit the undergraduate and graduate level classes. As a freshman you have no idea what kind of knowledge anyone else is coming into class with, so you worry about where you fall within the IQ spectrum for all of your classes. And on top of that you’re concerned with making sure your professors acknowledge you and the efforts your making in class. I know I’ve felt all these fears, as a freshman, as a transfer, and as a grad student. Of all these things fear is the pedagogical antithetical to progress and change.
Hi Cameron,
You did a wonderful job with your blog post! I thought you explained the idea of a liberatory classroom very well, while also connecting the readings to one another. To answer your first question, I think that conversations about race can be difficult for students and teachers to talk about in classroom settings. One reason topics of race can be difficult to talk about in classroom settings, is the idea of talking out of a place of fear and ignorance, which you mentioned in your blog post. I think teachers especially are fearful to talk about race because they don’t want to come off as ignorant or say something that might offend a student. For students, race might be a difficult topic to talk about in the classroom because it’s not something students are used to talking about. For white students, race might be an unimportant topic for them to talk about because they don’t feel it applies to them. For other students, race might be a topic that scares them because they feel they don’t fully understand it. Overall, I think the topic of race is difficult to talk about because people fear they might offend someone out of their own misunderstanding of the topic.
To answer your second question, I think Shrewsberry’s idea of a “liberatory classroom” means a classroom that feels/looks like a community. A classroom that looks/feels like a community would mean that everyone is working together to achieve a common goal. This idea of a liberatory classroom being a community means that teachers and students are working together, have mutual respect, and students and teachers can share thoughts/ideas without fear. I think this classroom would look like a collaboration, where teachers and students are working together to teach each other.
To answer your third question, the times I have felt fear in a classroom setting have been in high school and college. The first time I felt fear in a high school classroom was because of testing. I have never been a good test taker so when it came down to taking the SAT and ACT I felt so much fear that I would fail or not do well on these tests. A time where I felt fear in a college setting was in one of my first classes freshman year. It was an English class where participation was a pretty high percentage in determining your final grade. I would get scared to talk up in class about certain topics because I feared that people would judge me based on what I said or that I would say something accidentally that would offend someone. I think I was mostly afraid that someone would think I wasn’t smart enough to be in the class. This is where I think Shrewsberry’s idea of the “liberatory classroom” is important to implement in classrooms because the goal of this classroom is for its members to respect each other’s thoughts and differences rather than to fear them. This allows students and teachers to comfortably share their thoughts and ideas.