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.
