empower students and encourage them to implement social change. Unfortunately, many forms
of discrimination occur within our society. It is critical that educators collect methods to
encourage students to fight discrimination and work towards social change. With this in mind, I
would like to share my experience within my Psychology of Women’s course and the method
my professor used to empower my class to work towards social change.
As an undergraduate in a Psychology of Women course, I experienced a unique course
format. My professor encouraged our class to take charge of our learning. Instead of my
professor spending the entire course period lecturing course materials, she encouraged us to take
time to analyze course materials in small groups and consider real-life examples related to course
materials. At the same time, my professor stressed that each students opinions were valid. She
encouraged us to listen and cherish peers diverse viewpoints and experiences. In this course, I
was learning traditional course materials, but I was also learning to connect course material to
real-life experiences and respect and listen to my peers diverse backgrounds.
It wasn’t until later that I learned my professor had adopted a Feminist Pedagogical
teaching style. Feminist pedagogy can be interpreted as a collective laboratory in which students
and professors work together to unfold, interpret, decode research and evaluate the theory of
women’s experiences (Kimmel & Worell, 1997). In addition, the chance to hear peers diverse
viewpoints and experiences stimulates students ability to question privilege and oppression,
challenge myths pertaining to social groups (Sinacore & Boatwrigh, 2005).The idea behind
letting go of a traditional teaching style stems from the idea that perception does not occur in a
vacuum, instead perception is developed in social interactions. Students are granted the
opportunity to listen to diverse experiences and viewpoints, make sense of what peers share, and
develop a deeper understanding of a course topic (Dillenbourg, 2006). For example, after hearing
viewpoints from multiple students, and challenging myths, a student may shift from viewing the
pay gap as a fault of women traditionally picking lower-paying jobs and instead conclude that the
pay gap is due to institutional systems simply valuing the work of male employees more than
female employees. In sum, students are gaining the skills needed to question societal constructs
and institution systems that constitute social inquietly.
A term can be applied to the ability to question societal constructs and institution systems
that constitute social inquietly. That term being critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is
promoted best in groups in which facilitators hold non-oppressive relationships with participants
while discussing current sociopolitical circumstances in order to reveal institutional systems that
create inequality. (Campbell & MacPhail, 2002; Watts, Abdul-Adil, & Pratt, 2002).
Individuals who have developed critical consciousness skills have the capability to place
responsibility of social injustice on institutional systems instead of individuals who are victims
of inequality (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). To better understand this, turn back to my
example of the student shifting their blame of the pay gap on women because, on average, they
chose jobs that pay less, and instead blaming the pay gap on institutional systems simply valuing
the work of male employees more than female employees.
So I will begin this section with a question: Why is it important to adopt a feminist pedagogical teaching method with the aim to foster critical consciousness skill in students? Well- developed critical consciousness skills are linked to a student’s motivation to make changes in their own lives as well as the lives of others (Robinson-Keilig, Hamill, Gwin-Vinsant, & Dashner, 2014; Sinacore & Boatwrigh, 2005). College, of course, aims to educate students and provide the knowledge needed to build a successful career. However, is it not also important to empower students while also motivating our future generations to create social change? With many institutional systems generating countless forms of inequality such as sexism, poverty, racial discrimination, etc., the goal of our educational system must focus on empowering college students to create social change.
By Kristin Vierra
No comments:
Post a Comment