Course Description
Readings in feminist theories, research, and pedagogies focused on the experiences of children, families, and teachers in the context of elementary education. Students will engage feminist theories in their analyses of language, curricula, classroom practices, policies, media, and/or subjectivities in educational settings.
Athena Title
Feminist Perspectives in EDEL
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The objective of this course is for graduate students to engage feminist theories in analyses of elementary education to include language, curricula, classroom/school/community practices, policies, media, and/or identities and subjectivities in educational settings. Students will be introduced to the powerful possibilities of feminist theories, research, and pedagogies to promote emancipatory and equity- focused classroom practices and scholarship in elementary education. Students will explore multiple facets of elementary education such as family-school relations, classroom dynamics, critical pedagogy, content-specific instruction, identity and subjectivity, and school politics through readings by feminist scholars. Three questions will be considered across the semester: 1. Students will read feminist theories and educational research by historic and contemporary scholars spanning a wide range of perspectives and purposes across the trajectory of feminism and education beginning in the 1800s. 2. Students will distinguish between perspectives and purposes across feminist scholarship read in the course. 3. Students will recognize feminist commitments in published educational research and explain those commitments relative to course readings. 4. Students will understand the significance and complexity of gender and sexuality in teaching and teacher education. 5. Students will understand the significance and complexity of gender and sexuality in early childhood and elementary school contexts. 6. Students will understand the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, social class, religion, language, dis/Ability, and other cultural locations and the implications for schooling and educational research from a feminist perspective. 7. Students will develop a research focus for the semester that reflects their understandings of feminist perspectives in education. 8. Students will survey feminist-friendly educational research journals and share their findings. 9. Students will contribute to a writing group that will provide feedback on their scholarly writing grounded in feminist commitments and engaging feminist analyses. 10. Students will write a scholarly manuscript as a final project and submit the manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal.
Topical Outline
Bordo, S. (2004). Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body. University of California Press. Collins, P.H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Davies, B. (2003). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender. Hampton Press. Gilman, C.P. (1979). Herland: A lost feminist utopian novel. New York: Pantheon. Gonzalez, N. (2005). I am my language: Discourses of women and children in the borderlands. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Griffith, A. I. and Smith, D. E. (2005). Mothering for schooling. New York: Routledge. Hey, V. (1997). The company she keeps: An ethnography of girls’ friendship. Buckingham: Open University Press. Hicks, D. (2002). Reading lives: Working-class children and literacy learning. New York: Teachers College Press. Hooks, b. (2000). Feminist theory: From margin to center. Luttrell, W. (1997). School-smart and mother-wise: Working-class women’s identity and schooling. New York: London. Morrison, T. (1993). The bluest eye. Knopf. Satrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. New York: Pantheon. Smith, D. (1987). The everyday world as problematic. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Steedman, C. (1987). The tidy house: Little girls writing. London: Virago. Walkerdine, V. (1990). Schoolgirl fictions. London: Virago. Walkerdine, V. (1998). Counting girls out: Girls and mathematics. London: Falmer Press. Topics: • Introduction to feminist theories • Feminist theoretical perspectives on children, families, teachers, and schools • Feminist research in elementary education • Feminist pedagogies in elementary education • Engaging feminist theory in the world of elementary education
Syllabus
Public CV