The Feminist Classroom

Noting that the demographics of American universities have shifted to include a culturally diverse student body, Maher, associate professor of education at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and Tetreault, dean of the School of Human Development and Community Service at California State, here call for a more democratic and self-scrutinizing method of teaching, based on the pedagogical innovations they observed in classrooms across the country committed to a feminist curriculum. Through interviews with professors and students at schools ranging from state universities to private colleges, the authors show how new teaching methods, such as the introduction of more course material on women and more personalized class discussions, can foster a more productive and inclusive learning environment. Most important, they assert, is an awareness that the classroom is not ideologically neutral but ``a place embedded in a web of social relations.'' The authors demonstrate that feminist pedagogy, in its sensitivity to the subordinate social position of women, can be used as a springboard for teachers' heightened awareness of the positions of other marginalized groups. At once provocative and evenhanded, this welcome study throws new light on the ways in which cultural politics influence learning both inside and outside the academy. (Aug.)