feminist view on education

• Books, Journals, Papers
• Guides & How To’s
• Life Around The World
• Research Methods
• Functionalism
• Postmodernism
• Social Constructionism
• Structuralism
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Sociology Theorists
• General Sociology
• Social Policy
• Social Work
• Sociology of Crime & Deviance
• Sociology of Art
• Sociology of Dance
• Sociology of Food
• Sociology of Sport
• Sociology of Disability
• Sociology of Economics
• Sociology of Education
• Sociology of Emotion
• Sociology of Family & Relationships
• Sociology of Gender
• Sociology of Health
• Sociology of Identity
• Sociology of Ideology
• Sociology of Inequalities
• Sociology of Knowledge
• Sociology of Language
• Sociology of Law
• Sociology of Anime
• Sociology of Film
• Sociology of Gaming
• Sociology of Literature
• Sociology of Music
• Sociology of TV
• Sociology of Migration
• Sociology of Nature & Environment
• Sociology of Politics
• Sociology of Power
• Sociology of Race & Ethnicity
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Sexuality
• Sociology of Social Movements
• Sociology of Technology
• Sociology of the Life Course
• Sociology of Violence & Conflict
• Sociology of Work
• Sociology of Travel & Tourism
• Urban Sociology
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions

The Feminist View of Education: An Outline, Explanation, and Analysis

Introduction

In sociology, the feminist view of education is a perspective that examines how education systems perpetuate gender inequalities and reinforce traditional gender roles. This viewpoint analyzes various aspects of education, including curriculum, teaching methods, and institutional practices, to understand how they impact gender socialization and contribute to the overall gender imbalance in society.

The Patriarchal Nature of Education

Feminist theorists argue that education systems are inherently patriarchal, meaning they favor and promote the interests of men over women. This bias is evident in several ways:

• Curriculum: The curriculum often reflects a male-dominated perspective, with limited representation of women’s achievements and contributions. This omission reinforces the perception that women’s experiences and accomplishments are less valuable or significant.
• Gender Stereotypes: Education perpetuates gender stereotypes by assigning certain subjects, such as science and math, as more suitable for boys, while relegating others, like home economics and childcare, to girls. These stereotypes limit the choices and opportunities available to students based on their gender.
• Teacher Bias: Teachers may unknowingly exhibit bias by giving more attention and encouragement to male students, leading to disparities in academic achievement and self-esteem.

Gender Socialization in Education

Feminist scholars argue that education plays a crucial role in the socialization process, where individuals learn societal norms, values, and behaviors. In this context, education reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations, contributing to the perpetuation of gender inequalities. Some key points include:

• Reproduction of Gender Roles: Education often reinforces traditional gender roles by teaching students to conform to societal expectations. For example, girls are encouraged to be nurturing and passive, while boys are encouraged to be assertive and dominant.
• Hidden Curriculum: The hidden curriculum refers to the unspoken lessons and values that students learn through the educational system. This includes implicit messages about gender, such as the idea that boys are naturally better at certain subjects or that girls should prioritize their appearance over academic pursuits.
• Gendered Career Aspirations: Education can influence students’ career aspirations by directing them towards gender-specific professions. For instance, girls may be steered towards careers in nursing or teaching, while boys are encouraged to pursue careers in engineering or finance.

Challenges and Progress

While the feminist view of education highlights the inequalities and biases within the system, it also recognizes the progress made towards gender equality. Some challenges and advancements include:

• Gender Pay Gap: Despite improvements, women continue to face a gender pay gap, which is influenced by educational attainment. Feminist scholars argue that addressing gender inequalities in education is crucial to reducing this gap.
• Representation in Leadership: Women are underrepresented in leadership positions within educational institutions. Advocates for feminist education argue that increasing female representation in decision-making roles is essential for promoting gender equality.
• Intersectionality: The feminist view of education acknowledges the importance of considering intersectionality, which recognizes that gender intersects with other social identities, such as race, class, and sexuality. This perspective highlights the unique challenges faced by individuals who experience multiple forms of oppression.

The feminist view of education provides a critical lens through which to analyze how educational systems contribute to gender inequalities. By examining the curriculum, socialization processes, and institutional practices, feminists aim to challenge and transform the patriarchal nature of education. While progress has been made, ongoing efforts are necessary to create a more inclusive and equitable educational system that empowers all individuals, regardless of their gender.

Mr Edwards has a PhD in sociology and 10 years of experience in sociological knowledge

Related Articles

Bowles & Gintis’s Correspondence Theory

Discover Bowles and Gintis's correspondence theory in sociology, explaining the close connection between the social relationships in the workplace and...

How Educational Policy Helps Achieve Greater Equality

Educational policy plays a crucial role in shaping the educational landscape of a nation. It sets the framework for how...

The Feminist View of Culture: An Outline, Explanation, and Analysis

The Feminist View of Crime and Deviance: An Outline, Explanation, and Analysis

The Feminist View of Religion: Outlining, Explaining, and Analyzing

Get the latest sociology.

Would you be interested in enrolling in courses from Easy Sociology?

Recommended

Introduction to Urbanization in Sociology

What Are Social Work Values?

24 hour trending.

The Symbolic Interactionist View of Gender: An In-depth Analysis

The work and contributions of emile durkheim in sociology, pierre bourdieu’s symbolic violence: an outline and explanation, the importance of cultural integration: fostering unity and diversity, louis althusser’s view of education.

Easy Sociology makes sociology as easy as possible. Our aim is to make sociology accessible for everybody. © 2023 Easy Sociology

© 2023 Easy Sociology

A Guide to Feminist Pedagogy

• [framework for this guide]
• Rooted in Epistemology
• Construction of Knowledge
• The Role of Experience & Emotions
• Critical View of Power & Authority
• The Complexity of Identity
• The Importance of Community
• Course Design
• Learning Environment
• A Few Examples
• Works Cited
• How We Wrote It

Introduction to This Guide

Feminist pedagogy is not a toolbox, a collection of strategies, a list of practices, or a specific classroom arrangement.  It is an overarching philosophy—a theory of teaching and learning that integrates feminist values with related theories and research on teaching and learning.

It begins with our beliefs and motivations:   why do we teach? why do students learn? what are the goals of learning? We know that the consequences of our motives for teaching and learning are significant: Keith Trigwell and Mike Prosser have shown that the instructor’s intentions in teaching (“why the person adopts a particular strategy”) have a greater impact on student learning than the instructor’s actual strategies for teaching (“what the person does”) (78). Their research has shown that approaches to teaching that are purposefully focused on the students and aimed at changing conceptual frameworks lead to deeper learning practices than teacher-centered, information-driven approaches (Trigwell 98). The implications are that the instructor’s fundamental beliefs and values about teaching, learning, and knowledge-making matter .

In this guide, we explain some of the fundamental beliefs, values, and intentions behind feminist pedagogy to inform a deliberate application in specific classrooms –any and all classrooms, as feminist pedagogy can inform any disciplinary context. (For a more focused exploration of feminist pedagogy specifically within the women’s studies classroom, see Holly Hassel and Nerissa Nelson’s “A Signature Feminist Pedagogy: Connection and Transformation in Women’s Studies.”)

This guide is not a primer on feminism, though, so we begin having assumed the following:

We live within a patriarchy, a term which we define—following the work of Allan Johnson—as a society that’s structure is “male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified” (5). For more, read Allan Johnson’s Gender Knot , particularly chapter one, “Where are we?” and   chapter two, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us.” Differences exist “between and among groups” of people based on lived experiences that are informed by the complex interactions between “history, culture, power, and ideology” (McLaren 43). For more, read Peter McLaren’s taxonomy of approaches to difference . The concept of “woman” does not exist in isolation from other identities. Rather, identity is “intersectional,” a term that recognizes the interlocking and inextricable relationship between different aspects of identity and systems of oppression. For more, read Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.”  

How This Guide Was Written

-- See how composition process matched our subject matter.

-- Learn about the eight authors of this guide.

Guide Co-authors:

March , 2015

Raquelle Bostow Sherry Brewer Nancy Chick Ben Galina

Allison McGrath Kirsten Mendoza Kristen Navarro Lis Valle-Ruiz

<-- About the authors <-- How we wrote this guide on behalf of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching

Please log in to save materials. Log in

• Credentialism
• Cultural Capital
• Grade Inflation
• Hidden Curriculum
• Social Placement

Theoretical Perspectives on Education

• Define manifest and latent functions of education
• Explain and discuss how functionalism, conflict theory, feminism, and interactionism view issues of education

While it is clear that education plays an integral role in individuals’ lives as well as society as a whole, sociologists view that role from many diverse points of view. Functionalists believe that education equips people to perform different functional roles in society. Conflict theorists view education as a means of widening the gap in social inequality. Feminist theorists point to evidence that sexism in education continues to prevent women from achieving a full measure of social equality. Symbolic interactionists study the dynamics of the classroom, the interactions between students and teachers, and how those affect everyday life. In this section, you will learn about each of these perspectives.

Functionalism

Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

Manifest Functions

There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization. Beginning in preschool and kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal roles. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who established the academic discipline of sociology, characterized schools as “socialization agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles” (Durkheim 1898). Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this responsibility in full.

This socialization also involves learning the rules and norms of the society as a whole. In the early days of compulsory education, students learned the dominant culture. Today, since the culture of the United States is increasingly diverse, students may learn a variety of cultural norms, not only that of the dominant culture.

School systems in the United States also transmit the core values of the nation through manifest functions like social control. One of the roles of schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such respect, given to teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school environment. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and the world at large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have authority over them. Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with classroom teachers and instructors who are with students all day.

Education also provides one of the major methods used by people for upward social mobility. This function is referred to as social placement . College and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles for moving students closer to the careers that will give them the financial freedom and security they seek. As a result, college students are often more motivated to study areas that they believe will be advantageous on the social ladder. A student might value business courses over a class in Victorian poetry because she sees business class as a stronger vehicle for financial success.

Latent Functions

Education also fulfills latent functions. As you well know, much goes on in a school that has little to do with formal education. For example, you might notice an attractive fellow student when he gives a particularly interesting answer in class—catching up with him and making a date speaks to the latent function of courtship fulfilled by exposure to a peer group in the educational setting.

The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after their schooling is complete. Of course, with social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, these networks are easier than ever to maintain. Another latent function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a workplace and that might not be learned in a homeschool setting.

The educational system, especially as experienced on university campuses, has traditionally provided a place for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance to the many views represented on campus. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement swept across college campuses all over the United States, leading to demonstrations in which diverse groups of students were unified with the purpose of changing the political climate of the country.

Functionalists recognize other ways that schools educate and enculturate students. One of the most important U.S. values students in the United States learn is that of individualism—the valuing of the individual over the value of groups or society as a whole. In countries such as Japan and China, where the good of the group is valued over the rights of the individual, students do not learn as they do in the United States that the highest rewards go to the “best” individual in academics as well as athletics. One of the roles of schools in the United States is fostering self-esteem; conversely, schools in Japan focus on fostering social esteem—the honoring of the group over the individual.

In the United States, schools also fill the role of preparing students for competition in life. Obviously, athletics foster a competitive nature, but even in the classroom students compete against one another academically. Schools also fill the role of teaching patriotism. Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and take history classes where they learn about national heroes and the nation’s past.

Another role of schools, according to functionalist theory, is that of sorting , or classifying students based on academic merit or potential. The most capable students are identified early in schools through testing and classroom achievements. Such students are placed in accelerated programs in anticipation of successful college attendance.

Functionalists also contend that school, particularly in recent years, is taking over some of the functions that were traditionally undertaken by family. Society relies on schools to teach about human sexuality as well as basic skills such as budgeting and job applications—topics that at one time were addressed by the family.

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality. Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower status into obedience.

The fulfillment of one’s education is closely linked to social class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn. Picture a student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday, he’s assigned a paper that’s due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger sister while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking shelves after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that assignment, he’s so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though she’d like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn’t able to give him the encouragement or support he needs. And since English is her second language, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they have to rely on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows, many students from working-class families have to contend with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments and a lack of support from their families. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital , or cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the experiences and opportunities available to French students from different social classes. Members of the upper and middle classes have more cultural capital than do families of lower-class status. As a result, the educational system maintains a cycle in which the dominant culture’s values are rewarded. Instruction and tests cater to the dominant culture and leave others struggling to identify with values and competencies outside their social class. For example, there has been a great deal of discussion over what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many argue that the tests group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence.

The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal educational curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum , which refers to the type of nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.

Conflict theorists point to tracking , a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced versus low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations (Education Week 2004).

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to accept and retain their position as lower members of society. They argue that this role is fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008).

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased—for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong in an orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge—knowledge most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to orchestral music. Though experts in testing claim that bias has been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not provide opportunities, but instead maintains an established configuration of power.

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality in education, as well as their societal repercussions. Like many other institutions of society, educational systems are characterized by unequal treatment and opportunity for women. Almost two-thirds of the world’s 862 million illiterate people are women, and the illiteracy rate among women is expected to increase in many regions, especially in several African and Asian countries (UNESCO 2005; World Bank 2007).

Women in the United States have been relatively late, historically speaking, to be granted entry to the public university system. In fact, it wasn’t until the establishment of Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972 that discriminating on the basis of sex in U.S. education programs became illegal. In the United States, there is also a post-education gender disparity between what male and female college graduates earn. A study released in May 2011 showed that, among men and women who graduated from college between 2006 and 2010, men out-earned women by an average of more than $5,000 each year. First-year job earnings for men averaged $33,150; for women the average was $28,000 (Godofsky, Zukin, and van Horn 2011). Similar trends are seen among salaries of professionals in virtually all industries.

When women face limited opportunities for education, their capacity to achieve equal rights, including financial independence, are limited. Feminist theory seeks to promote women’s rights to equal education (and its resultant benefits) across the world.

Grade Inflation: When Is an A Really a C?

Consider a large-city newspaper publisher. Ten years ago, when culling résumés for an entry-level copywriter, they were well assured that if they selected a grad with a GPA of 3.7 or higher, they’d have someone with the writing skills to contribute to the workplace on day one. But over the last few years, they’ve noticed that A-level students don’t have the competency evident in the past. More and more, they find themselves in the position of educating new hires in abilities that, in the past, had been mastered during their education.

This story illustrates a growing concern referred to as grade inflation —a term used to describe the observation that the correspondence between letter grades and the achievements they reflect has been changing (in a downward direction) over time. Put simply, what used to be considered C-level, or average, now often earns a student a B, or even an A.

Why is this happening? Research on this emerging issue is ongoing, so no one is quite sure yet. Some cite the alleged shift toward a culture that rewards effort instead of product, i.e., the amount of work a student puts in raises the grade, even if the resulting product is poor quality. Another oft-cited contributor is the pressure many of today’s instructors feel to earn positive course evaluations from their students—records that can tie into teacher compensation, award of tenure, or the future career of a young grad teaching entry-level courses. The fact that these reviews are commonly posted online exacerbates this pressure.

Other studies don’t agree that grade inflation exists at all. In any case, the issue is hotly debated, with many being called upon to conduct research to help us better understand and respond to this trend (National Public Radio 2004; Mansfield 2005).

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism sees education as one way that labeling theory is seen in action. A symbolic interactionist might say that this labeling has a direct correlation to those who are in power and those who are labeled. For example, low standardized test scores or poor performance in a particular class often lead to a student who is labeled as a low achiever. Such labels are difficult to “shake off,” which can create a self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton 1968).

In his book High School Confidential , Jeremy Iverson details his experience as a Stanford graduate posing as a student at a California high school. One of the problems he identifies in his research is that of teachers applying labels that students are never able to lose. One teacher told him, without knowing he was a bright graduate of a top university, that he would never amount to anything (Iverson 2006). Iverson obviously didn’t take this teacher’s false assessment to heart. But when an actual seventeen-year-old student hears this from a person with authority over her, it’s no wonder that the student might begin to “live down to” that label.

The labeling with which symbolic interactionists concern themselves extends to the very degrees that symbolize completion of education. Credentialism embodies the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications. These certificates or degrees serve as a symbol of what a person has achieved, and allows the labeling of that individual.

Indeed, as these examples show, labeling theory can significantly impact a student’s schooling. This is easily seen in the educational setting, as teachers and more powerful social groups within the school dole out labels that are adopted by the entire school population.

The major sociological theories offer insight into how we understand education. Functionalists view education as an important social institution that contributes both manifest and latent functions. Functionalists see education as serving the needs of society by preparing students for later roles, or functions, in society. Conflict theorists see schools as a means for perpetuating class, racial-ethnic, and gender inequalities. In the same vein, feminist theory focuses specifically on the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality in education. The theory of symbolic interactionism focuses on education as a means for labeling individuals.

Section Quiz

Which of the following is not a manifest function of education?

• Cultural innovation
• Social placement
• Socialization

Because she plans on achieving success in marketing, Tammie is taking courses on managing social media. This is an example of ________.

• cultural innovation
• social control
• social placement
• socialization

Which theory of education focuses on the ways in which education maintains the status quo?

• Conflict theory
• Feminist theory
• Functionalist theory
• Symbolic interactionism

Which theory of education focuses on the labels acquired through the educational process?

What term describes the assignment of students to specific education programs and classes on the basis of test scores, previous grades, or perceived ability?

• Hidden curriculum
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

Functionalist theory sees education as serving the needs of _________.

• the individual
• all of the above

Rewarding students for meeting deadlines and respecting authority figures is an example of ________.

• a latent function
• a manifest function
• informal education
• transmission of moral education

What term describes the separation of students based on merit?

• Cultural transmission
• Social control

Conflict theorists see sorting as a way to ________.

• challenge gifted students
• perpetuate divisions of socioeconomic status
• help students who need additional support
• teach respect for authority

Conflict theorists see IQ tests as being biased. Why?

• They are scored in a way that is subject to human error.
• They do not give children with learning disabilities a fair chance to demonstrate their true intelligence.
• They don’t involve enough test items to cover multiple intelligences.
• They reward affluent students with questions that assume knowledge associated with upper-class culture.

Short Answer

Thinking of your school, what are some ways that a conflict theorist would say that your school perpetuates class differences?

Which sociological theory best describes your view of education? Explain why.

Based on what you know about symbolic interactionism and feminist theory, what do you think proponents of those theories see as the role of the school?

Further Research

Can tracking actually improve learning? This 2009 article from Education Next explores the debate with evidence from Kenya. http://openstaxcollege.org/l/education_next

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) is committed to ending the bias and other flaws seen in standardized testing. Their mission is to ensure that students, teachers, and schools are evaluated fairly. You can learn more about their mission, as well as the latest in news on test bias and fairness, at their website: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/fair_test

Education Week. 2004. “Tracking.” Education Week , August 4. Retrieved February 24, 2012 ( http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/tracking/ ).

Godofsky, Jessica, Cliff Zukin, and Carl Van Horn. 2011. Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University.

Iverson, Jeremy. 2006. High School Confidential . New York: Atria.

Lauen, Douglas Lee and Karolyn Tyson. 2008. “Perspectives from the Disciplines: Sociological Contribution to Education Policy Research and Debate.” AREA Handbook on Education Policy Research . Retrieved February 24, 2012.

National Public Radio. 2004. “Princeton Takes Steps to Fight ‘Grade Inflation.’” Day to Day , April 28.

Mansfield, Harvey C. 2001. “Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 47(30): B24.

Merton, Robert K. 1968. Social Theory and Social Structure . New York: Free Press.

UNESCO. 2005. Towards Knowledge Societies: UNESCO World Report . Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

World Bank. 2007. World Development Report . Washington, DC: World Bank.

The Feminist Perspective on Education (UK Focus)

Liberal Feminists celebrate the progress made so far in improving girls’ achievement. They essentially believe that the ‘Future is now Female’ and now that girls are outperforming boys in education, it is only a matter of time until more women move into politics and higher paid, managerial roles at work.

Radical Feminists , however, argue that Patriarchy still works through school to reinforce traditional gender norms and to disadvantage girls – Add in details to the notes below.

Some Radical Feminist Sociologists see concern over boys’ relative underachievement as a ‘moral panic’. Boys have still been improving their achievement in the last thirty years, just not as fast as girls. The Feminist argument is that the focus on education at the moment on ‘raising boys achievement’ reflects a male dominated system panicking at the fact that old patriarchal power relations are starting to break down.

Recent research suggests that despite girls doing well at school – girls are increasingly subject to sexist bullying, something which is becoming worse with the ‘normalisation of pornography’. Read the extract from Kat Banyard over page for more details and consider how common such incidents are today. Read the extract provided for details

While girls are discouraged from using their bodies on the sports field, they often find their bodies at the centre of another unwelcome kind of activity. Chloe was one of the many women and girls I heard from during the course of my research into violence at school. ‘I had boys groping my en masse. It wasn’t just at break times – in class as well. Sometimes they used to hold me down and take it turns, it was universally accepted. Teachers pretended they didn’t notice. I would regularly hang out in the toilets at break time. I felt pretty violated; it made me hate my body.’ Having now left school, Chloe can pinpoint exactly when the sexual harassment began. ‘When my breasts grew. I went from an A to an E cup when I was fourteen.’ It became a regular feature of her school day, mostly happening when the boys were in groups. ‘People would randomly scream ‘’slut’’. One boy told me that he has a fantasy that he wanted to tie me up and viciously rape me. He was a bit of an outcast. But when he said that all the boys were high-fiving him. He got serious street-cred for saying it.’’ Classrooms are training grounds for boys aspiring to be ‘real men’ and girls like Jena and Chloe are paying the price. Humiliating and degrading girls serves to highlight just how masculine boys really are. And so, sexist bullying and sexual harassment are an integral part of daily school life for many girls.

Hayley described to me how some of the boys at her secondary school were using new technologies to harass girls. ‘They try and take pictures with their camera phones up you skirt while you’re sitting at your desk. Nobody knows what to say. They wouldn’t want to provoke an argument.’ Boys also access internet pornography on school computers. Hayley said, ‘in year seven and eight it’s quite common. Even the boys you wouldn’t expect you see getting told off by teachers for it.’ Similarly Sarah remembers pornography being commonplace at her school; ‘Every student was asked to bring in newspaper articles. Many boys saw this as a great opportunity to bring in newspapers such as the Sun, Star, Sport etc and make a point of looking at, sharing and showing the countless page-three-style images. Sarah was ‘extremely upset on a number of occasions when boys who sat near me in class would push these pages in front of me and make comments. Most of the time all the forms of harassment went completely unchallenged; I don’t think (the teachers) ever paid any attention to sexual harassment.’

Share this:

One thought on “the feminist perspective on education (uk focus)”, leave a reply cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Discover more from ReviseSociology

• Revision Resources
• Learning sociology starts here!!!
• Sociology revision books
• Answering Exam Questions

What’s the point of education? A feminist perspective

From the 1960s onwards, feminist sociologists highlighted the following gender inequalities in society. Feminists argue that the education system is just a primary preparation for leading into the future work force. They argue the gender differences in subject choice in schools come is evidence of a patriarchal society. Colley (1998) reviewed this idea and found that despite all the social changes in recent decades, traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity were still widespread as evident below.

Gender and education – Feminist perspectives focus on gender inequalities in society. Feminist research has revealed the extent of male domination and the ways in which male supremacy has been maintained. From a feminist viewpoint, one of the main roles of education has been to maintain gender inequality.

Gendered language – reflecting wider society, school textbooks (and teachers) tend to use gendered language – ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘his’, ‘man’ and ‘men’ when referring to a person or people. This tends to downgrade women and make them invisible.

Gendered roles – school textbooks have tended to present males and females in traditional gender roles – for example, women as mothers and housewives. This is particularly evident in reading schemes from the 1960s and 1970s.

Gender stereotypes – reading schemes have also tended to present traditional gender stereotypes. For example an analysis of six reading schemes from the 1960s and 1970s found that:

• boys are presented as more adventurous than girls
• as physically stronger
• as having more choices
• girls are presented as more caring than boys
• as more interested in domestic matters
• as followers rather than leaders

Women in the curriculum – in terms of what’s taught in schools – the curriculum – women tend to be missing, in the background, or in second place. Feminists often argue that women have been ‘hidden from history’ – history has been the subject of men.

Subject choice – traditionally, female students have tended to avoid maths, science and technology. Certain subjects were often seen as ‘boys’ subjects’ and ‘girls’ subjects. Often girls subjects had lower status and lower market value

Discrimination – there is evidence of discrimination against girls in education simply because of their gender. For example, when the 11-plus exam was introduced in the 1940s, the pass mark was set lower for boys than for girls to make certain there roughly equal numbers of boys and girl sin grammar schools. In other words girls were artificially ‘failed’ so boys could ‘succeed’.

Further and higher education – traditionally the number of female students going on to further and higher education has been lower than for boys. There is evidence that teachers often gave boys more encouragement than girls to go to university (Stanworth, 1983).

Feminist perspectives – an evaluation – Feminist perspectives have been valuable for exposing gender inequality in education. Partly as a result of sociological research, a lot has changed – for example, much of the sexism in reading schemes has now disappeared. Today, women have overtaken men on most measures of educational attainment. Their grades at GCSE and A level are significantly higher than those of male students. And more women than men are going on to higher education. The concern now is the underachievement of boys rather than discrimination against girls. Please read through the PowerPoint below further details.

Understanding the differences between these perspectives is key to grasping this module. So before you move onto the next lesson take some time to complete the test in the slideshow below. The answers follow every question. So work through each question individually and then compare your answers.

Return to education overview

Share this:

Interesting views,but what strides did they make for the girl child in education?

by all measures our children are living shorter than the pre feminist era. our schools are full of female pedophiles, who get slaps on the wrists compared to men. other 1rst world countries are doing at education. FAIL and these are FACTS!

Reblogged this on sexyparisienne.com .

Thanks for reblog 🙂

• Marxism and Education « Sociology at Twynham School
• Feminism and You – The Basics | leahbyron

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Entries feed
• Comments feed
• WordPress.com

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Follow me on Twitter

• truewoman.com/?id=739

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar
• Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Our Cookie Policy

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Original Language Spotlight
• Alternative and Non-formal Education 
• Cognition, Emotion, and Learning
• Curriculum and Pedagogy
• Education and Society
• Education, Change, and Development
• Education, Cultures, and Ethnicities
• Education, Gender, and Sexualities
• Education, Health, and Social Services
• Educational Administration and Leadership
• Educational History
• Educational Politics and Policy
• Educational Purposes and Ideals
• Educational Systems
• Educational Theories and Philosophies
• Globalization, Economics, and Education
• Languages and Literacies
• Professional Learning and Development
• Research and Assessment Methods
• Technology and Education
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education.

• Kristal Moore Clemons Kristal Moore Clemons Virginia State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1194
• Published online: 28 August 2019

Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education is guided by a particular understanding of the learning strategies informed by Black women’s historical experiences with race, gender, and class. Scholars of Black feminist thought remind us of a Black feminist pedagogy that fosters a mindset of intellectual inclusion. Black feminist thought challenges Western intellectual traditions of exclusivity and chauvinism. This article presents a synopsis of the nature and scope of Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education. Further, this article highlights the work of scholars who describe the importance of an Afrocentric methodological approach in the field of education because it offers scholars and practitioners a methodological opportunity to promote equality and multiple perspectives.

• Black feminist thought
• endarked feminist epistemology
• Black feminist pedagogy
• qualitative research
• educational research

How does one understand the “other” when she is the “other” and few have been able to articulate a definition of the “other” that is acceptable to her and from which she can begin the understanding process? Givens and Jeffries ( 2003 )

Introduction

Qualitative research sheds light on understanding in such a way as to guide an increased knowledge about a particular narrative. What matters most is the quality of the insights, not the quantity (Patton, 2002 ). Its multidisciplinary lineage prevents the creation of an umbrella or catch-all definition. Thus, fundamentally, qualitative research is the quest to discover meaning within a particular narrative or story with particular concern to the nuances of the story to deepen meaning and understanding. Qualitative research can be organized in several forms including case study, narrative inquiry, phenomenologically grounded theory, action research, and ethnography. All qualitative research employs a similar data collection process including (in varying degrees) interviews, observation, documents, and audiovisual materials (Creswell & Poth, 2018 ).

It is imperative to understand “research is not an objective endeavor, void of the interrelationships formed and maintained by the researcher and participants” (Givens & Jeffries, 2003 , p. 2). When qualitative research and Black feminist thought come together, we see a methodological practice that works to increase the level of understanding among researchers and participants. Much of the work situated within Black feminist thought and qualitative research highlights the work of Black women qualitative researchers on communities of color and their lived experiences in critical and informative ways. Historically, academics have utilized positivistic methodological approaches that distance researchers from communities and the academy.

Sociologist and architect of Black feminist thought Patricia Hill Collins ( 2000 ) identified four dimensions of an Afrocentric feminist epistemology: (a) lived experience as a criterion of meaning, (b) the use of dialogue to assess knowledge claims, (c) the ethic of caring, and (d) the ethics of personal accountability; all of these aid in helping the researcher understand the interviewee as a participant with agency and history. These four dimensions helped Black women qualitative researchers bridge the disconnect between their personal and professional lives. It also supported them in increasing their understanding of their participants’ lives particularly as it pertained to the intersections of race, class, gender, and other cultural intricacies.

Givens and Jeffries ( 2003 ) crafted the edited volume, Black Women in the Field: Experiences Understanding Ourselves and Others through Qualitative Research , to highlight eight Black women’s experiences and encounters as qualitative researchers. The book provides insight on Black women who work to improve and understand Black communities. Jeffries and Generett remind us, “efforts not to reinscribe the ideals and thoughts perpetuated by positivist methodical approaches lead Black women to choose alternative epistemologies to describe knowledge and experience. Qualitative research, unlike more positivist methodologies provide a means for researchers to critique and improve this process” (Givens & Jeffries, 2003 , p. 4).

Further, Dillard ( 2016 ) offers a broader understanding of a global Black feminist thought that is centered upon what she describes as “research as responsibility.” She provides a unique context to deepen our understanding of an endarkened feminist epistemology as “a catalyst for thinking about a vision/version of feminisms that, for diasporic Black women, might open a way to (re)member our identities, lives, and work as Black women” (Dillard, p. 406). Black feminist epistemology and endarkened feminist epistemology support researchers in what Dillard ( 2016 ) describes as a

move away from the traditional metaphor of research as recipe to fix some problem to a metaphor that centers reciprocity and relationship between the researcher or teacher and those who, in that moment, are engaged in the research or teaching with us. (Dillard, 2016 , p. 407)

Black and endarkened feminism call for researchers to think about the ways in which we can build upon what Noblit, Flores, and Murillo ( 2004 ) have called postcritical ethnographic research. Postcritical ethnography contributes to emancipatory knowledge and revolves around a discourse of social justice. This work pushes qualitative researchers to make the move from “what is” to “what could be” (Noblit et al., 2004 ; Thomas, 1993 ). The aim is to address the process of unfairness no matter the lived domain. To do this effectively, positionality is key. Noblit et al. ( 2004 , p. 157) asked, “What difference does it make when the ethnographer comes from a history of colonization and disenfranchisement?” Much of the Black feminist thought and qualitative research work on race, gender, and social class have forced researchers to unpack their positionality around their own power and privilege as researchers in the academy.

A Review of the Dimensions of Black Feminist Thought

In Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment Collins ( 2000 ) described the importance of an Afrocentric methodological approach. Collins wrote:

I knew that when an individual Black woman’s consciousness concerning how she understands her everyday life undergoes change, she can become empowered. Such consciousness may stimulate her to embark on a path of personal freedom, even if it exists primarily in her own mind. If she is lucky enough to meet others who are undergoing similar journeys, she and they can change the world around them. (Collins, 2000 , p. x)

The act of sharing one’s story and drawing a connection to other Black women who have similar experiences is powerful and can aid the understanding of the many challenges people face. Moreover, the “Afrocentric feminist methodology validates the experience, dialogical knowledge, caring, and accountability that may exist within a Black female academic philosophy” (Givens & Jefferies, 2003 , p. 4). Black feminist theory offers insight to a complex history of Black women’s work and activism.

In linking Patricia Hill Collins’s definition of Black feminist theory to conducting fieldwork one must also review standpoint theory. Black feminist theory comes out of standpoint theory, a feminist materialism that enables us to expand the Marxian critique of capitalism to include all of human activity, especially the activity of women (Collins, 2000 ; Hartsock, 1983 ). In Feminist Methods in Social Research , Reinharz ( 1992 , p. 251) stated, “At the heart of much feminist research is the goal, even the obligation of taking action and bringing about social change in the condition of women.” Feminist research aims to give voice to the invaluable, but all too often, the experiences of women of color are overlooked. As a result, Black feminist thought works to create a space where Black women can share their experiences and contributions as educators and activists. When researchers utilize Black feminist thought, their work illustrates how Black women activists are Black women theorists and producers of knowledge.

Black feminist core themes of work, family, sexual politics, motherhood, and political activism rely on paradigms that emphasize the importance of intersecting oppression in shaping the U.S. matrix of domination (Collins, 2000 , p. 251). The four dimensions of Black feminist epistemology shape one’s role as a qualitative researcher: (a) lived experience as a criterion of meaning, (b) the use of dialogue to assess knowledge claims, (c) the ethic of caring, and (d) the ethic of personal accountability all aid in helping researchers understand the interviewee as a participant with agency and history. The first dimension, “lived experiences as a criterion of meaning,” situates the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Here, Collins ( 2000 ) gave the example of Sojourner Truth’s statement, “look at my arm, I’ve ploughed and planted. . . . Ain’t I a woman?” She situated Truth and other Black women as “connected-knower[s]” because of their lived experiences and unique voice to address societal issues. This is vitally important for Black women because not only have Black women developed a distinctive Black women’s standpoint, but Black women have done so by using alternative ways of producing and validating knowledge (Collins, 2000 , p. 252).

The second dimension of a Black feminist epistemology addresses “the use of dialogue.” This implies talk between two subjects, not the speech of subject and object. Collins ( 2000 ) noted that this humanizing speech challenges and resists domination. Rather than believing that research can be value-free, Collins ( 2000 ) argued that all knowledge is intrinsically value-laden and should thus be tested for the presence of empathy and compassion. Collins’s third dimension of Black feminist epistemology (2000) implies that knowledge is built around an ethic of caring. Collins argued that the presence of emotion validates the argument. “Emotion indicates that a speaker believes in the validity of an argument” ( 2000 , p. 263). The “ethic of caring” implies talking with the heart; appropriateness with emotions, because emotion indicates that the speaker believes in the validity of the argument; and capacity for empathy (Collins, 2000 , p. 266). For Collins, the ethics of care can bridge the binary breakdown between the intellect and emotion that Eurocentric knowledge values.

The “ethic of personal accountability” is the fourth dimension, and it demands one to be accountable for their personal knowledge claims. Knowledge claims made by individuals respected for the moral and ethical connections to their ideas will weigh more than those offered by less respected figures. In addition, ideas cannot be divorced from the individuals who create and share them. Collins examines exactly what Black feminist theory is and how it began to offer an alternative way of knowing. Black feminist thought coupled with an education project can challenge the status quo particularly as it pertains to students, teachers, school leaders, and policy-makers. Research, with a Black feminist thought and education thesis, focuses on Collins’s four dimensions—articulate themes of survival as a form of resistance, critical discourses within the history of education, and pedagogical foundations rooted in Black women’s activism and Black feminist pedagogy.

Black feminist thought and qualitative research encourage partnerships to be formed with participants who work to initiate dialogue as they begin to remember instances and give meaning to their experiences past and present. Feminist research methods are concerned with social justice, dismantling power structures, recognizing that women experience oppression and exploitation, and that experience varies based on race, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc. (Reinharz, 1992 ). When linking Black feminist theory to conducting fieldwork, researchers become equally as concerned with the research process as they are with the data they are collecting. Black feminist theory is critical social theory, and from this a researcher can craft a research methodology that aims to uncover the subjugated voices of their communities.

Black Feminist Thought and Positionality

Positionality has its roots in feminist literature and allows researchers to clearly identify the lens through which they interpret the social world. How one conducts fieldwork, how one codes the data, and one’s rapport with participants are extremely important. When utilizing Black feminist thought as a methodological technique, researchers recognize this as a political stance. There is a commitment to making sure the work is self-reflexive. Researchers must answer personally and professionally: “what’s my investment in this research?” or as Alice Walker puts it, “what is the work my soul must have?” Madison ( 2005 ) wrote extensively on positionality and stressed the importance of being vulnerable, transparent to judgement and evaluation. When engaging in Black feminist thought, scholars have to have a comfortable relationship with theory. By comfortable, this means that, even in the midst of struggle and confusion, the researcher must commit to wrestling with uncomfortable ideas. One may constantly struggle in the field with what they thought things were and what they found things to actually be upon completing the research. This means scholars who utilize Black feminist thought are constantly reflecting on their historical understandings of various ideas and navigating their privilege when making meaning of their findings.

Many texts fully engage and challenge how identity impacts one’s professional life as a qualitative researcher. In Oral Narrative Research with Black Women: Collecting Treasures , Vaz ( 1997 ) began with “Why conduct oral narrative research with African and African American women?” This research method “allows the unique knowledge domains of Black women to come into full view” (Vaz, 1997 , p. vii). Vaz ( 1997 ) worked with several Black women personal narrative researchers and commented on the strategies they have found helpful when writing about the experiences of Black women. Methodological information about conducting oral narrative research from this standpoint is rare. When Black women interview other Black women, the notion of “insider privilege” is negotiated. Researchers tease out the nuances of what it means to be from the same racialized community. This experience of understanding “the other” when one is “the other” can be challenging and force researchers to be more self-reflexive about their projects (Groves, 2003 ). In an effort to “make the familiar strange,” “Black women researchers must consider the places we were reared, our gender, race, class, and ability, along with other interrelated factors that play a crucial role in developing and shaping our experiences and the experiences of our participants” (Givens & Jeffries, 2003 , p. 3). While one may think they know what their participants would potentially say, one must carefully ask each question and get the participants to explicitly comment about their lives and work as Black women.

Qualitative researchers who utilize Black feminist thought are challenged to organize a legitimate piece of work that could celebrate the work of women in their communities, function as a critical ethnographic piece that is not exploitative, and promote the further emancipation of Black women. Sophia Villenas ( 1996 , p. 713) reminded us, “we are both the colonized and colonizer, marginalized by the academy yet using the resources and tools of the academy to write about our own communities and, even more intimately, our own lived experiences.” Qualitative researchers who utilize Black feminist thought typically make themselves available for their participants if they need any assistance. They work to remain conscious throughout the entire process of their positionality. They develop a rapport with each participant, fostering them through various modes of communication. There is a keen understanding that “research is not an objective endeavor, void of the interrelationships formed and maintained by the researcher and participants” (Givens & Jeffries, 2003 , p. 2). As a result of this phenomenon, a kinship is developed with the text, the participants, and the mission to create a research project that would aid in the development of a better understanding of Black communities.

Black Feminist Thought and Data Collection and Analysis

There is no single right way to analyze qualitative data (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996 , p. 2). Many compile archival data chronologically to situate any historical context. Relevant documents provide context to the educational and community organizing experience of participants. Document analysis in qualitative research makes use of excerpts or entire passages from journals, personal diaries, correspondence and memoranda, and official publications (Merriam, 1998 ). When researchers fluent in Black feminist thought conduct qualitative research, they think critically about the interview processes. Many times, the interviewees will select the time and location, making it comfortable and accommodating for the participant. Researchers fluent in Black feminist thought also remain diligent about recognizing their positionality as it helps them build a rapport with their participant that began with the need to collect data but ends with a commitment to honor the particularities of the stories to which they are privileged to gain access.

Coding is an essential part of data analysis that allows researchers to identify salient themes and patterns. According to Coffey and Atkinson ( 1996 , p. 27), “in practice, coding can be thought of as a range of approaches that aid the organization, retrieval, and interpretation of data.” Many researchers fluent in Black feminist thought approach coding by employing in vivo coding, sociologically constructed coding, and open coding. Open coding is identified as an “open” process because it allows the researcher to engage in exploration of data without making any prior assumptions about what the researcher might discover. In vivo coding “refers to the codes that derive from the terms and the language used by social actors in the field, or in the course of the interviews” (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996 , p. 32). In vivo coding coupled with Black feminist thought allows the researcher to inductively engage with the participant’s narrative. On the other hand, sociologically constructed coding allows the researcher “to identify themes, patterns, events, and actions that are of interest and that provide a means of organizing data sets” (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996 , p. 32).

Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education positions data analysis as a process of organizing, interpreting, and producing stories that generate reflexivity. According to Coffey and Atkinson ( 1996 ), “narratives have rather specific, distinct structures with formal and identifiable properties” (p. 57). People who work within this field are in turn the interpreters, evaluators, and producers of stories. Bhattacharya ( 2016 ) provides critical insight on how vulnerable personal narratives demonstrate how de/colonizing and microaggressive discourses intersect in higher education in the United States. She argued that vulnerability offers a means of reconceptualizing and rethinking possibilities for addressing social inequities in higher education. Researchers use narrative to frame understandings of people, culture, and change, and to address social and cultural phenomena without reducing the phenomena to isolated variables. As a result of this understanding, Black feminist thought can be used as both a methodological tool and a framework for analyzing the data.

Reciprocity, Research Trustworthiness, and Black Feminist Thought

Alridge ( 2003 ) named the dilemmas and challenges of objectivity, voice, agency, and presentism encountered by African American educational historians whose research focuses on the education of African Americans. Similarly, Collins ( 2000 ) noted that Black women run the risk of “being discredited as being too subjective and hence less scholarly” (p. 19). Alridge ( 2003 ) argued the “double consciousness” African American scholars face within the academy may be transcended by using solid and innovative conceptual and methodological approaches (Alridge, p. 25). Black feminist thought, when implemented with fidelity, serves this need. Scholars of color often reconcile this dilemma by actively recognizing their race, sexuality, gender, and class as tools that shape their identity as a researcher.

For Glesne ( 2006 ), reciprocity can have a therapeutic effect on the interview process. She wrote, “What specifically is therapeutic about the interview process is the unburdening effect of the respondents saying safely whatever they feel. . . . The therapeutic dimension of a good interview is part of what [I] return to [my] participants” (p. 85). Similarly, Patton ( 2002 ) also found that giving participants recordings of the interview and transcripts was a way to continue family legacies. He wrote, “Participants in research provide us with something of great value, their stories and their perspectives on their world. We show that we value what they give us by offering something in exchange” (p. 415). The words of Patton ( 2002 ) and Glesne ( 2006 ) resonate with scholars and challenge them to think about the reciprocal aspects of research. This type of research provides examples of the multiplicity represented in the world that has been silenced and neglected by traditional research methods. Investigating the subjugated knowledge of subordinate groups—in this case a Black woman’s standpoint and Black feminist thought—requires more ingenuity than is needed to examine the standpoints and thoughts of dominant groups (Collins, 2000 , p. 252). This is in part because subordinate groups have long had to use alternative ways to create independent self-definitions and self-valuations of themselves. The rendering of multiple realities in research ignites a greater sense of reciprocity among participant and researcher.

Glesne ( 2006 ) stated that validity is an issue we should consider “during research design as well in the midst of data collection” (p. 35). She listed several verification procedures one can employ to address the issue of research validity. The procedure researchers use most often is member checking. Glesne ( 2006 ) described member checking as “sharing interview transcripts, analytical thoughts, and/or drafts of the final report with research participants to make sure you are representing them and their ideas accurately” (p. 36). Member checking help researchers verify the trustworthiness of their data collection and analysis.

Black Feminist Thought and Qualitative Research in Education in Action

What follows is a review of relevant works that have utilized Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education. Waters's, We Can Speak for Ourselves (2016), is a multifaceted analysis of the ways in which one might think about Black mothers. Negative portrayals of Black mothers continue to permeate throughout film, music, and other forms of media. Black women are often over-sexualized and under-intellectualized in academic scholarship. The majority of American society holds onto and reproduces negative images about Black women. These controlling images perpetuate Black women’s oppression. We Can Speak for Ourselves pushes back and highlights the various levels of agency Black mothers possess to move forward. This work builds on early Black feminist writings (Collins, 1998 ; Giddings, 1984 ; hooks, 1984 ) and is in conversation with new work in the field of motherhood studies and women’s studies that looks at “motherhood as praxis, institution, and lived experience” (Story, 2014 ). This book highlights the grave conditions facing Black mothers and articulates a new viewpoint of Black women’s lives and capabilities. There is an imperative nature to this book as it is a call to action. We Can Speak for Ourselves articulates Black mothers’ engagement in acts of resistance to sustain their lives and build communities. Through personal narrative interviews, this qualitative study gives voice to Black women who are grappling with the work of being a mother. Situated in Chicago, these stories add to the scholarship on the work of Black mothers and force readers to engage in a dialogue that recognizes the contributions of Black women’s community activism through time and space. This work provides a unique historical analysis of controlling images of Black mothers alongside a sophisticated analysis of contemporary issues in popular culture that work for and against Black mothers. The work also challenges the general public’s assumptions about Black mother work and the preconceived notions about their to parenting, “othermothering,” and the overall care for their children.

Next, Dillard’s 2016 work, entitled “Turning the Ships Around: A Case Study of (Re)Membering as Transnational Endarkened Feminist Inquiry and Praxis for Black Teachers” argued that an endarkened feminist epistemology (EFE) articulates how reality is known when based in the historical roots of global Black feminist thought. This work focuses on a young Black woman teacher from the southern part of the United States. Dillard examined how this teacher’s engagement with Africa and African knowledges, culture, and womanhood in Ghana transformed her ability to respond in culturally relevant ways in her teaching of Black children. This work specifically links how encounters with the African continent and people can transform teaching and learning and teachers’ lives. She builds upon critical feminist scholarship including but not limited to Collins ( 2000 ), Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment ; Mohanty, Russo, and Torres ( 1991 ), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism ; Alexander ( 2005 ), Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred ; and hooks ( 1993 ), Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery . Dillard ( 2016 ) reminded us of the intersection/overlap of the culturally constructed socializations of race, gender, nation, and other identities, and the historical and contemporary contexts of oppressions and resistance for African heritage women.

A critical point in Dillard’s 2016 work comes when she articulates how, in an endarkened feminist epistemological space, one is encouraged to move away from the traditional metaphor of research as recipe to fix some problem to a metaphor that centers on reciprocity and relationship between the researcher or teacher and those who, in that moment, are engaged in the research or teaching with us. She reminds us that this is a more useful research metaphor. Dillard ( 2016 ) wrote, “The distinction being made between spirituality and the sacred is important here. Many Black feminist and feminist researchers of color suggest that spirituality is to have a consciousness of the realm of the spirit in one’s work and to recognize that consciousness as a transformative force in research and teaching” (Dillard, p. 407). When researchers understand research as responsibility, the work becomes answerable and obligated to the very persons and communities being engaged in the inquiry. This particular work of cultural memory, spirituality, and sacredness in endarkened feminist epistemological space honors the wisdom and spirituality of the transnational Black woman’s ways of knowing and being in inquiry.

Evans-Winters and Love's edited volume, entitled Black Feminism in Education: Black Women Speak Up and Speak Out (2015) , explores the impact of race, gender, and culture on education through the lens of Black feminist thought and endarkened feminist epistemology. This text is divided into three sections: (a) Black feminist and intellectual spiritual pursuits, (b) Black feminism in educational research, and (c) responsibility for who and what is a Black feminist educator. This book examines the intersection of race, gender, culture, power, privilege, and interlocking systems of oppression. This unique collection of scholarship forces readers to think about new methodologies, new pedagogies, and new theoretical frameworks when thinking about Black feminist thought in higher education. The contributors to the volume analyze the dimensions of being Black and woman in academia. More specifically, the text highlights some of the personal and professional challenges Black female students, educators, leaders, and activists face that are related to resilience, humanity, spirituality, and academic/professional pursuits.

Davis ( 2009 ) utilized Black feminist thought as a lens to examine the mentoring experiences of Black women in graduate and professional schools. Davis wrote, “the findings are central to placing Black women at the center of their own realities as students in graduate and professional schools and support the importance of mentoring among African American women as a method of empowerment and uplift in the academy” (Davis, 2009 , p. 531). The linkages she made between what the participants shared, and the distinguishing features of Black feminist thought highlight the need for more mentoring opportunities for Black women. She cautions institutions of higher education to play close attention to the fact that establishing mentoring relationships is difficult. This is particularly the case when thinking about mentorship and Black women. Further, in some of her more recent work, Davis ( 2017 ) articulated how the conceptual underpinnings of Black feminism serve as a leading theoretical lens for understanding the intersections of race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, and citizenship for Black females. In a lecture given at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entitled “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Black Woman’s Blueprint for Institutional Transformation in Higher Education,” Davis reminded the audience that despite Black women’s high achievement, Black female collegians and academics routinely have their ways of knowing when they are devalued as a result of the myriad of ways institutionalized oppression manifests thought racism and sexism. The use of Black feminist thought helps make sense of these challenges and provides a critical record of these challenges through various historical moments.

This article began with the assertion that Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education is guided by a particular understanding of the learning strategies informed by Black women’s historical experiences with the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Through the examination of the work of scholars fluent in a methodological practice rooted in the tenets of Black feminist thought and endarkened feminist epistemology, we see the work of Black women is legitimized in new ways. Audre Lorde ( 2007 ) reminded us that to “examine Black women's literature effectively requires that we be seen as whole people in our actual complexities—as individuals, as women, as human—rather than as one of those problematic but familiar stereotypes provided in this society in place of genuine images of Black women” (Lorde, 2007 , p. 117). Black women’s narratives can be utilized in such a way where we see “whole people in our actual complexities.” This means employing a methodological approach that validates the lived experiences and particularities of Black women researchers, scholars, participants.

Bibliography

• Collins, P. (2000). Black feminist thought . New York, NY: Routledge.
• Collins, P. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism . New York, NY: Routledge.
• Cooper, B. C. (2018). Eloquent rage: A black feminist discovers her superpower . New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
• Givens, G. Z. , & Jeffries, R. B. (2003). Black women in the field: Experiences understanding ourselves and others through qualitative research . Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Guy-Sheftall, B. (1995). Words of fire: An anthology of African-American feminist thought . New York, NY: New Press.
• hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory: From margin to center . Boston, MA: South End.
• Alexander, M. J. (2005). Pedagogies of crossing: Meditations on feminism, sexual politics, memory, and the sacred . Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Alridge, D. (2003). The dilemmas, challenges, and duality of an African-American educational historian. Educational Researcher , 32 (9), 25–34.
• Bhattacharya, K. (2016). The vulnerable academic: Personal narratives and strategic de/colonizing of academic structures. Qualitative Inquiry , 22 (5), 309–321.
• Coffey, A. , & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Collins, P. (1998). Fighting words . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Collins, P. (2000). Black feminist thought : Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment . New York, NY: Routledge.
• Collins, P. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender and the new racism . New York, NY: Routledge.
• Creswell, J. W. , & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
• Davis, L. P. (2009). My sister’s keeper: A qualitative examination of significant mentoring relationships among African American women in graduate and professional schools. Journal of Higher Education , 80 (5), 510–537.
• Davis, L. P. (2017). Hidden in plain sight: The Black woman’s blueprint for institutional transformation in higher education . Lecture video with PowerPoint slides.
• Dillard, C. B. (2016). Turning the ships around: A case study of (re)membering as transnational endarkened feminist inquiry and praxis for black teachers. Educational Studies , 52 (5), 406–423.
• Evans-Winters, V. E. , & Love, B. L. (Eds.). (2015). Black feminism in education: Black women speak back, up, and out . New York, New York, NY: Peter Lang.
• Giddings, P. (1984). When and where I enter: The impact of black women on race and sex in America . New York, NY: Amistad.
• Glesne, C. (2006). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
• Groves, P. (2003). Insider, outsider, or exotic other? Identity, performance, reflexivity, and postcritical ethnography. In G. Z. Givens & R. B. Jeffries (Eds.), Black women in the field: Experiences understanding ourselves and others through qualitative research (pp. 103–115) Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Hartsock, N. (1983). The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism. In S. Harding (Ed.), Feminism and methodology: Social science issues (pp. 157–180). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• hooks, b. (1993). Sisters of the yam: Black women and self-recovery . Boston, MA: South End.
• Lindsay-Dennis, L. (2015). Black feminist-womanist research paradigm: Toward a culturally relevant research model focused on African American girls. Journal of Black Studies , 46 (5), 506–520.
• Lorde, A. (2007). Age, race, class and sex: Women redefining difference. In A. Lorde , Sister Outsider (pp. 114–123). Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press. Originally published in 1983.
• Madison, D. S. (2005). Critical ethnography: Method, ethics, and performance . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Mohanty, C. T. , Russo, A. , & Torres, L. (1991), Third world women and the politics of feminism . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Noblit, G. W. , Flores, S. Y. , & Murillo, E. G., Jr. (Eds.). (2004). Postcritical ethnography: An introduction . Cresskil, NJ: Hampton.
• Omolade, B. (1994). The rising song of African American women . New York, NY: Routledge.
• Patterson, A. , Kinloch, V. , Burkhard, T. , Randall, R. , & Howard, A. (2016). Black feminist thought as methodology: Examining intergenerational lived experiences of black women. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research , 5 (3), 55–76.
• Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Reinhartz, S. (1992). Feminist methods in social research . London, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
• Story, K. (Ed.). (2014). Patricia Hill Collins: Reconceiving motherhood . Bradford, ON: Demeter Press.
• Thomas, J. (1993). Doing critical ethnography . Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
• Vaz, K. (1997). Social conformity and social resistance: Women’s perspectives on women’s place. In K. Vaz (Ed.), Oral narrative research with black women (pp. 223–249). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Villenas, S. (1996). The colonizer/colonized Chicana ethnographer: Identity, marginalization, and co-optation in the field. Harvard Educational Review , 66 (4), 711–731.
• Waters, B. S. (2016). We can speak for ourselves: Parent involvement and ideologies of black mothers in Chicago . Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.

Related Articles

• Critical Race Theory
• Interviews and Interviewing in the Ethnography of Education
• Qualitative Approaches to Studying Marginalized Communities
• Writing Educational Ethnography
• Qualitative Data Analysis and the Use of Theory

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Education. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 24 August 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [185.80.151.41]
• 185.80.151.41

Character limit 500 /500

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE IN EDUCATION

Related Papers

Dr. SANTOSH KUMAR

Liberal Feminism rests on the conception that human nature is individualistic and assuring equal space for both sexes is main concern of this frame. The Liberal feminist's primary goal can be understood as one of claiming gender equality in the spheres of access to education, equal pay, segregation of jobs on the basis of gender and better working conditions. Liberal feminism also attempts to achieve these goals through legal changes. Demand for the equal rights and legal safeguards are considered to be important for them. This paper reflects on the women issue in the Liberal Feminist frames which argues for the equality too women in moderate way. It includes education as core discussion. How the feminist frames engaged with the women question of gender and education. The interaction of the one identity with another one has social and psychological implications in the contemporary time and space.

Julinna Oxley

Ronald Sultana

Waheed Iqbal

FEMINISM, LIBERAL. Emphasizing equal individual rights and liberties for women and men and downplaying sexual differences, liberal feminism is the most widely accepted social and political philosophy among feminists. Liberal feminists defend the equal ration-ality of the sexes and emphasize the importance of structuring social, familial, and sexual roles in ways that promote women's autonomous self-fulfillment. They emphasize the similarities between men and women rather than the average differences between them, attribute most of the personality and character differences between the sexes to the social construction of gender, and tend to promote a single set of androgynous virtues for both women and men. While rejecting strong claims of sexual difference that might underwrite different and potentially hierarchical rights and social roles, liberal feminists otherwise avoid the promotion of particular conceptions of the good life for either men or women, instead defending a broad sphere of neutrality and privacy within which individuals may pursue forms of life most congenial to them. While liberal feminists acknowledge that some choices made by women are questionable because conditioned by sexist social practices , they also tend to avoid maternalism and any second-guessing of those choices made without coercion, or threats. Fully informed and mentally competent adult women are assumed to be the final judges,of their own best interests. Thus liberal feminists tend to resist legislative intervention that would gainsay the judgment of women. The preeminence of this perspective owes much to the fact that it encompasses a wide range of related but distinct views that fit comfortably within the framework of political liberalism. It does not fundamentally challenge capitalism or heterosexuality; nor does it recommend separatism, as do more radical feminists. Instead, it aims to extend the full range of freedoms in a liberal democratic society to women, criticizing practices that deny women equal protection under the law as well as laws that de facto discriminate against women. Liberal feminists reject utopian visions of an ideal society in favor of one that eliminates coercion and promotes autonomous choices among all its citizens.

American International Journal of Contemporary Research

Joan Nkansaa Nkansah

This article is a blueprint for using feminist theory as a lens in educational research. Feminist theory explores how systems of power and oppression interact. The theory highlights social issues overlooked or misidentified by society because they appear natural and reasonable to the dominant perspective. The feminist theory can be used to analyze women's social experiences with gender subordination, oppression, and gender inequality and to identify remedies to these gender-specific discrimination issues. The paper provides an in-depth literature review of the feminist theory while applying the theory to a contemporary research topic. The article explores the origin of feminism, how the feminist movements birthed the feminist theory, and how the feminist theory can be considered feminism extending into philosophical or theoretical fields. The paper further explores how the gender constructs of the feminist theory (gender inequality, gender oppression, gender roles, gender objectification, and gender division of labor) can be used to explore the experiences of women leaders in the contemporary organizational setting.

Studier i Pædagogisk Filosofi

Marie Hållander

Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education

Sarah A Robert

In this entry, we provide a brief introduction to the concepts of feminism and gender as they inform educational policy analyses. This entails explaining the evolution of feminist thought, the idea of gender as an analytic category, and how educational policy and politics is understood and thus critiqued through critical, feminist and gendered lenses. Most importantly, the entry responds to questions that are simple—though not simplistic—and that are central to feminist praxis, which is concerned with bringing about change. Here, that change is related to educational opportunities of girls and women, as well as disrupting historical, systemic, and institutional gender inequality, including that found in schools.

Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children

Maughn Gregory

Nitish Yadav

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Kathryn Girard

Lenos T Gororo

Eleftheria Atta

Reading research quarterly

Michelle Commeyras

reter badak

Curriculum Inquiry

Madeleine Arnot

Graeme Edwards

Joy Mubvumbi

Sociological Bulletin

Sherry Sabbarwal

Nadiah Izzati

Pat O Connor

The Cambridge Companion to Liberalism

Linda M G Zerilli

Tugce Guner

Tulsa Law Review

Lori Watson

Freeden Blume Oeur

Maimuna B. Hussain

Roxanne Desforges

“Feminist Critiques of Liberalism,” The Cambridge Companion to Liberalism, ed. Steven Wall (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 355-380.

Julie McLeod

CEPS Journal , veronika tasner , Slavko Gaber

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Feminism and Philosophy of Education

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2016
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Suzanne Rice 2  

356 Accesses

Introduction

Feminism has now influenced nearly all the academic disciplines and traditions and has also informed newer areas of inquiry as they have come into existence. Feminist thought has been fairly contagious, with insights arising in one corner of the academy being “caught” in others. Thus the scholarship of, say, a feminist biologist may come to be reflected in that of a psychologist, and vice versa. This pattern has characterized feminism in philosophy of education, where feminist ideas originating elsewhere are brought to bear on questions and problems in the field and where, occasionally, ideas developed within the field are exported to other traditions and disciplines.

Jane Roland Martin: Pioneer

In the USA, Jane Roland Martin was one of the first professional philosophers of education to bring a feminist perspective to her work. Reflecting back on the field prior to the 1980s, Martin noted the absence of discussions by or about women:

Whether one was thinking of women as...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Applebaum, B. (2000). On good authority: Is feminist authority an oxymoron? In R. Curren (Ed.), Philosophy of education 1999 (pp. 307–317). Urbana: Philosophy of Education Society.

Google Scholar  

Beck, L. G. (1994). Reclaiming educational administration as a caring profession . New York: Teachers College Press.

Boler, M. (Ed.). (2008/2010). Digital media and democracy: Tactics in hard times . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Diller, A., Houston, B., Pauly Morgan, K., & Ayim, M. (1996). The gender question in education: Theory, pedagogy, and politics . Boulder: Westview.

Engster, D. (2004). Care ethics and natural law theory: Toward an institutional political theory of caring. Journal of Politics, 66 , 113–135. doi:10.1046/j.1468-2508.2004.00144.x.

Article   Google Scholar  

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Held, V. (Ed.). (1995). Justice and care: Essential readings in feminist ethics . Boulder: Westview.

Laird, S. (2008). Mary Wollstonecraft: Philosophical mother of coeducation . New York: Continuum.

Li, H.-l. (2007). Ecofeminism as a pedagogical project: Women, nature, and education. Educational Theory, 57 (3), 351–368.

Martin, J. R. (1981a). The ideal of the educated person. Educational Theory, 31 (2), 97–109.

Martin, J. R. (1981b). Sophie and Emile: A case study of sex bias in the history of educational thought. Harvard Educational Review, 51 (3), 357–372.

Martin, J. R. (1982). Excluding women from the educational realm. Harvard Educational Review, 52 (2), 133–148.

Martin, J. R. (1999). Women, schools, and cultural wealth. In C. Titone & K. E. Maloney (Eds.), Women’s philosophy of education: Thinking through our mothers (pp. 149–177). Upper Saddle River: Merrill.

Mayo, C., & Stengel, B. (2010). Compelled to challenge: Feminists in the wide world of philosophy of education. In R. Bailey, D. Carr, & R. Barrow (Eds.), Sage handbook of philosophy of education (pp. 151–166). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education . Berkeley: University of California Press.

Thayer-Bacon, B., Stone, L., & Sprecher, K. M. (Eds.). (2013). Education feminism: Classic and contemporary readings . New York: State University of New York Press.

Thompson, A. (1998). Not the color purple: Black feminist lessons for educational caring. Harvard Educational Review, 68 (4), 522–554.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

Suzanne Rice

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suzanne Rice .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Michael Peters

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Rice, S. (2015). Feminism and Philosophy of Education. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_318-1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_318-1

Received : 15 December 2015

Accepted : 18 December 2015

Published : 12 January 2016

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Online ISBN : 978-981-287-532-7

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Education Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Education

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Reference Library

Collections

• See what's new
• All Resources
• Student Resources
• Assessment Resources
• Teaching Resources
• CPD Courses
• Livestreams

Study notes, videos, interactive activities and more!

Sociology news, insights and enrichment

Currated collections of free resources

Browse resources by topic

• All Sociology Resources

Resource Selections

Currated lists of resources

Topic Videos

Feminist Perspectives on Education

Last updated 27 Jan 2020

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share by Email

The key feminist perspectives on education are summarised in this A-Level Sociology revision video.

• Gender Identity
• Feminisation of Education
• Gender (Education)
• Gender (Beliefs)
• Post-modern Feminism

You might also like

Gender and religious belief.

Study Notes

Davis and Moore on Education

Parsons on education, women's research plummets during lockdown - but articles from men increase.

19th May 2020

Netflix: Why Women Are Paid Less

19th June 2020

Should we abolish private schools?

12th October 2020

Postmodernity and Masculinity - Gender and Crime

Education Checklist for AQA A Level Sociology

22nd February 2024

Our subjects

• › Criminology
• › Economics
• › Geography
• › Health & Social Care
• › Psychology
• › Sociology
• › Teaching & learning resources
• › Student revision workshops
• › Online student courses
• › CPD for teachers
• › Livestreams
• › Teaching jobs

Boston House, 214 High Street, Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, LS23 6AD Tel: 01937 848885

• › Contact us
• › Terms of use
• › Privacy & cookies

© 2002-2024 Tutor2u Limited. Company Reg no: 04489574. VAT reg no 816865400.