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USING FEMINIST THEORY IN TEACHER EDUCATION 

 Audrey M. Dentith
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
U. S. A.

Introduction
Feminist Perspective
Examining Gender Stereotypes
Conclusion
Endnotes
References

Introduction

Democracy requires participation by all members of society in ways that will enhance the creative abilities of all and lead to a strong regard for the welfare of others (Beane, 1998; Dewey, 1916).  Democracy should lead to politically astute citizenry that is able to recognize and name injustices and to create forms of public life that work for the common good.  Public education could support this legacy as one of its fundamental purposes.  This becomes most significant when we acknowledge that the public educational system in the United States remains the largest and most accessible institution that can provide people with the tools to develop these abilities, knowledge and values.  Through schooling exist the possibilities for the development of an active, creative, and committed citizen able to realize the goals of a true democracy  (Giroux & McLaren, 1986).  [paragraph 1]

As teachers, school administrators, and teacher educators, our task is to promote a strong understanding of democracy and facilitate democratic processes as part of our work within schools. Through our teaching, we can assert the goals and promise of a critical citizenry that is able to analyze and critique current ideologies and practices. This is a necessary preliminary step if we are to challenge and, ultimately, transform the inequalities that besiege our society.  To do this, we first build awareness of existing inequalities and injustices.  We, then, must examine the beliefs that undergird these social practices. Finally, we need to connect this awareness to opportunities for renaming differences and transforming society through the practices of everyday life.  [paragraph 2]

In my work as a teacher educator and university professor, I attempt to expose the myriad ways that difference and diversities embody and lead to particular inequities in our society.  I do this by deliberately creating experiences that support students’ learning of these realities.  As a feminist, I believe my theoretical knowledge, combined with personal awareness and political sensibilities, lends expedience to this effort.   Because of its inherent political and critical qualities and acute attention to personal dimensions, feminism can help us acknowledge injustices by connecting them to personal experiences.  [paragraph 3]

Feminist Perspective 

Feminism began as a political movement in which women challenged the multiple oppressions they suffered as women in a world that acknowledged and valued only male experiences.  Women have long transferred their experiences into the realm of the political.  Confined in their roles as housewives and mothers who were silenced in the public sphere, women first fought for the right to vote and enter the paid labor force. Later they made the public aware of inequities in pay, unfair labor practices, and a lack of opportunities for women within the work world. Women and their allies have also fought for governmental programs that would compensate poor or dislocated families. They have protested against industries and governments for environmental rights that would keep their homes and children safe from toxic waste.  For feminists, the personal becomes political since their personal experience and suffering must be made public for all to understand and acknowledge (Ferree & Hess, 2000; Naples, 1998; Orleck, 1995).  [paragraph 4]

Through this engagement, feminists have challenged and continue to challenge the taken-for-granted roles of women in society as they expose knowledge that has been silenced or ignored. Feminist work exposes the ways that gender is used as a social construct to oppress women by limiting their access to power and certain resources. Gender is something we do and something we think about. It is a particular set of practices and cultural meanings that organize people into categories that are not based on biological truths. Notions of gender have been historically constructed through relations of power and have come to be regarded as truth and are, therefore, seldom questioned or challenged. (Davies, 1989; Lorber & Farrell, 1991).  [paragraph 5]

Feminism exposes these notions and pushes forward to envision new gendered  roles that women might take up in new arrangements with the world. Feminism provides the means and knowledge through which we can begin to see how certain gendered experiences and other forms of knowledge become marginalized.  We can see how particular constructions organize people into categories that privilege some and not others (Lorber & Farrell, 1991).  [paragraph 6]

Through these processes, the enormity of inequities suffered by all who exist on the margins of society are highlighted and brought to light. Thus, feminism, first as an effort aimed at the emancipation of women, leads, by extension, to considerations of others who suffer inequities in our society. Furthermore, feminism provides us with tools for actions, through activism and education, that are able to publicly challenge the limitations pressed upon marginalized people and ultimately lead to amendment of social injustices. (Barton-Calabrese, 1998; Brady, 1995, 1999; Brady & Dentith, 2001; Fisher, 2001; Luke, 1996; Nicholson, 1990, 1997; Ropers-Huilman, 1998;).  [paragraph 7]

Examining Gender Stereotypes 

I use a variety of exercises and assignments to help students gain these perspectives in my courses. As I teach a variety of general curriculum theory and instructional methods courses, multicultural perspectives, and general courses in school and teacher leadership, I purposefully integrate gender issues into our class work.  [paragraph 8]

In one such exercise that is popular with both undergraduate and graduate students (and potentially with high school students), I divide the class into smaller groups and inform them that they are going to participate in a simulation. They are to pretend that they are now working for a toy manufacturing company. Their task is to create the voice dialogue for the computer chip in specific figure dolls.  Each group is secretly assigned a particular toy name such as “Barbie,” GI Joe,” “Miss Piggy,” “Kermit the Frog,” etc.  Without revealing the identity or name of their particular doll, each group must construct five one-sentence verbal responses that each doll might say when its computer chip is activated. After all the groups are finished, I ask them to read aloud their sentences without revealing the identity of their doll. Before other class members shout out the identity of the exposed doll, I ask them to first “guess” the gender of the doll.  Then, they are free to postulate the doll’s identity. Of course, these announcements are easily made with stereotypical phrases and comments adequately capturing both the gender and the commercial name of the figurines.  GI Joe might say, “One to Two Commando. Attack!” while Barbie’s comments are predictably of another vein, “Should I wear the purple dress to the dance or the green one?”  [paragraph 9]

This exposure of obviously gendered dialogues makes the familiar strange for many students and usually leads into a rich discussion of gendered expectations, gender roles and the limitations of gender structures. For example, most of the women in the class will lament the fact that women are held to high (and normative) beauty standards that are difficult to achieve or maintain. They might complain that it is not acceptable for them as women to behave or look differently than the expected norm.  [paragraph 10]

Likewise, I might encourage similar talk among the students regarding men’s roles and the normative expectations imposed on them in our society.  Men are often expected to act in certain ways to prove their manliness in ways that limit them as well.  Gender constructs can limit all of us.  Often, I give examples of how boys and men suffer if they dislike sports or prefer activities and occupations that are strictly relegated to women. Through the examples and self-disclosure, most students find ample materials from personal experiences and the popular culture for discussion.  [paragraph 11]

Another exercise that I find helpful for this purpose involves teaching students some preliminary deconstruction skills using children’s literature.¹ After breaking students into small groups of 3 or 4 members each, I distribute one of the many popular Disney storybooks to each group.  In the past, I have used contemporary or classic Disney stories including The Little Mermaid (Edgar, 2000), Snow White and Seven Dwarfs (Baker, 1999), Beauty and the Beast (Titlebaum and Hogan, 1999), and Cinderella (Cohen and Hogan, 1999)².  I instruct the group members to peruse the pages of these books for a few minutes.  I then hand out a sheet that asks to them to describe the role and personal characteristics/qualities of the women in each story.  Sample guide questions include: What seems to be their life goal?  What qualities could be attributed to them?  [paragraph 12]

Invariably, these descriptions resonate with commonly held views and stereotypes of women. For example, students might describe Ariel in The Little Mermaid as a seductively dressed red-head or a very feminine character who seems to be overly concerned with "falling in love" and getting married. Cinderella is a kind, quiet female and content to merely dream of a better life for herself. She does what she is told without a hint of resentment or any cross words. Her beauty, petite-build, feminine voice and sweet natured disposition eventually leads her to be the object of the Prince’s affection.  Her ultimate role is to marry the Prince.  [paragraph 13]

I also point out the ways of portraying "evil" people and the gendered notions implicit in these practices. The skin color and body weight of the characters are often used to symbolize their good or evil traits.  For example, the evil-minded Ursula in The Little Mermaid is dark-skinned and obese.  The evil antagonists are often darker-skinned males or females with some physical traits that mark them as physically unfavorable. The protagonists, on the other hand, are often blonde or European-looking figures with muscular builds or "perfect" figures.  [paragraph 14]

I also ask students to describe the roles of poor people, disabled people, and/or old people in each story.  Sometimes it is difficult for students to find such people in these stories because they are so marginalized within the text. For example, the servants in The Little Mermaid are smaller than other characters and say almost nothing. Additionally, the personal servant of King Tritan is a Jamaican character who seems easily confused and not very smart.  Such depictions foster particular notions of identity about non-dominant groups.  [paragraph 15]

I encourage my students to reflect on the ways that these implicit ideologies might have influenced them as young children who read and reread these stories as entertainment rather than as critique. I also ask them to imagine the tremendous impact these ideologies continue to have in the light of Disney’s increasing popularity and the multiplicity of genres beyond books in the form of replicated figure toys, movies, and computer games that are widely available and appealing to young children.  [paragraph 16]

This deconstructive work can lead to action when students see the connections to their future roles as teachers and leaders.  Such purposeful discussion serves to model the ways that such thinking can and should be pursued in the context of classrooms. Many times students wonder if they should eliminate certain material from the classroom. I almost never suggest that curriculum materials be eliminated since these provide opportunities for exposure and critical thinking about the nature of our social world.  I also challenge students to reflect self-consciously on the ways that their own language might reveal certain gendered notions they believe but which have not been challenged on a personal level.  For example, when an upper elementary teacher asks for a “boy volunteer to work the new VCR or to lift a heavy box," there are certain assumptions within this language that should be addressed.  Boys’ and girls’ physical strength are nearly identical during this developmental period.  Likewise, gender is not, or should not be, an indicator of any innate technological abilities. Thus, language and curriculum within the classroom become sites for reflection, resistance and social change.  [paragraph 17]

This process of unveiling implicit ideologies that limit people through a variety of gendered notions is a primary concern of feminist analysis and theory.  Likewise, feminism extends this process to uncover the tacit understandings that we hold about other groups of people whose voices are not heard or acknowledged including those with disabilities or those from poor backgrounds.  This is the preliminary work of feminist theory, the work that must occur so that particular notions and practices can be challenged and new ways of thinking and being can be imagined. Deconstruction to expose and recognize injustices in order to respond and take subsequent action is the central tenet and key function of feminist theory and feminist work.  [paragraph 18]

In another exercise I use, I allow my students to examine gender issues in relation to race/ethnicity and class.  In the following exercise, students can begin to see how differences lead to stereotypes that operate surreptitiously in our society as well as in our own sub-consciousness.  I place 5 –6 newsprint sheets around the classroom prior to class. Each newsprint paper has a specific social group named on it.  Some examples include Blonde Women, White Men, African American Men, Asian Men, Asian Women, Native American Men, Native American Women, Hispanic American Men, Poor Black Women, and Hispanic Women, etc.  I distribute self-adhesive tablets to each small group and instruct them to think of all the stereotypical comments that are typically attributed to each group. As they think of each one, they write it down and one person posts it on the appropriate newsprint sheet.  Invariably, newsprint papers with the labels of African-American, Mexican, and Hispanic contain the most negative and numerous comments.  Comments under the newsprints labeled White men and Asians often garner the most positive connotations.  [paragraph 19]

We discuss stereotypes in general and the ease at which these expressed notions roll from our sub-consciousness. I also connect the prevalence of negative stereotypes with the economic, political and social realities suffered by each group. For example, African Americans and Hispanic are over-represented with negative stereotypes and also over-represented in certain statistics such as poverty when compared with other groups in the United States.  It is possible to see connections between perceived notions and the actual well-being of particular groups. This can reveal the potential detrimental effects rendered as a result of negative stereotypes and ill-founded generalizations on the overall social status and well-being of particular groups.  [paragraph 20] 

Conclusion  

Highlighting gender issues through feminist theory can forge the pathways to an eventual understanding of other social differences and inequalities. Gender awareness can lead to an understanding of the ways that social categories of identities limit one’s engagement with the world and lead to particular injustices. Through relations of power, knowledge is produced and reproduced in ways that limit some and privilege others.  When one’s experiences and knowledge are not acknowledged or one is not granted access to systems of knowledge and power, marginalization and oppression occur. This can be seen in a variety of examples that include women, people of color, poor people and others who exist outside of the regimes of power and privilege. Women’s history provides countless examples of this phenomenon as does the history of Native Americans, African Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanic-Americans.  [paragraph 21] 

Furthermore, in a society such as ours that values certain archetypes and specific forms of conformity, discrimination and alienation become the norm for all who are different. Schools provide many examples of the ways that difference results in discrimination and alienation. For example, the ways that one learns, or does not learn, might lead to special education placement, lower track educational opportunities or elimination of consideration for higher education. Differences in social practices, socio-economic statuses, and other socially inscribed ways of being can lead to social alienation through bullying and other forms of abuse or discrimination.  [paragraph 22]

 In the process of identifying dominant beliefs, we come to realize the immense value and power that these views hold for our society and its people.  We must ask ourselves, “Who is heard? Who is silenced? Whose experiences are validated or ignored?  [paragraph 23]

Discussion on these issues should include examples that depict the real experiences of individuals who experienced alienation and suffering because they did not fit into dominant standards. For example, what are some of dominant beliefs about males and females who are gay or lesbian? What about those who are overweight or who look different than the standard norm of beauty?  How do many people in the United States feel about those who practice religions outside of a Christian and Protestant standard?  How are new immigrants and others whose customs, languages, and beliefs differ from an American mainstream regarded and treated by many members of our society?  [paragraph 24]

Endnotes

1 This exercise is adapted from one published in Rethinking our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, (1994) edited by B. Bigelow, L. Christensen, S. Karp, B. Miner, and B. Peterson.  Available from Rethinking Schools in Milwaukee, WI.  www.rethinkingschools.org

2 I have found that Disney books and films provide ample materials for critique and discussion. Many Disney titles suffice for this exercise. Typically, I use very well-known and current stories since this also might reinforce the idea that such notions are widespread and typically unchallenged by most who read and buy these materials with the best intentions for their children.

References  

Baker, L. (Ed.) (1999). Walt Disney’s Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Burbank, CA: Mouse Works Publisher. 

Banks, J. A., & Banks, McGee, C. A. (Eds.). (1997). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.  

Barton-Calabrese, A. (1998). Feminist science education.  New York: Teachers College Press.

Beane, J. (1998). Reclaiming a democratic purpose for education.  Educational Leadership, 56 (2), 8-11.

Brady, J. (1999).  Feminist critical pedagogy.  In D. Gabard (Ed.). Power /knowledge and the politics of education meaning: A teacher’s guide. Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum.  

Brady, J. (1995). Schooling young children: A feminist pedagogy for liberatory learning.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Brady, J. & Dentith, A. (2001). Critical voyages: Postmodern feminist pedagogies as liberatory practice. Teaching Education, 12 (2), 163-174.  

Cohen, D. and Hogan, M. (Eds.) (1999). Walt Disney’s Cinderella: A read-along storybook. New York: Random House Disney.

Davies, B. (1989). Frogs, snails and feminist tales. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Free Press.

Edgar, A. (Ed.) (2000). Disney’s The little mermaid: A read-aloud storybook. New York: Random House Disney.

Feree, M. M. & Hess, B. B. (2000). Controversy and coalition: The new feminist movement across four decades of change (3^rd ed). New York: Routledge.

Fisher, B. M.  (2001). No angel in the classroom: Teaching through feminist discourse. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Giroux, H. & McLaren, P. (1986).  Teacher education and the politics of engagement: The case for democratic schooling. Harvard Educational Review, 56 (3), 213-238.

Lorber, J. & Farrell, S. A. (1991). (Eds.). The social construction of gender. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Luke, C. (1996). Introduction.  In C. Luke (Ed.), Feminisms and pedagogies of everyday life.  (pp. 1-27) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.  

Naples, N. (1998). Introduction. In N. Naples (Ed.)., Community activism and feminist politics: Organizing across race, class, and gender  (pp.1-27).  New York: Routledge.

Nicholson, L. (1990). (Ed.). Feminism/Postmodernism.  New York: Routledge. 

Nicholson, L. (1997). Introduction.  In L. Nicholson (Ed.), The second wave: A reader in feminist theory (pp. 1-5).  New York: Routledge.

Orleck, A. (1995). Common sense and a little fire: Women and working-class politics in the United States, 1900-1965. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Ropers- Huilman, B. (1998). Feminist teaching in theory and practice: Situating power and knowledge in the poststructural classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.

Sleeter, C. E. (1996). Multicultural education as social activism. Albany, NY: SUNY.  

Titlebaum, E. & Hogan, M. (Eds.) (1999). Beauty and the beast: A read-aloud storybook. New York: Random House Disney.

Wallace, K. (2001). Pedagogical and ideological considerations.  Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education [on-line], 3 (2), 17 paragraphs <Available: http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2001fall/wallace.html> Retrieved May 20, 2002.  

Audrey M. Dentith, Ph.D.,  Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, received a Ph.D. from Penn State University in 1998 and a M.Ed. from Temple University in 1994.  Her research and teaching interests lie in gender issues, feminist and critical theories, urban school reform, and women in educational leadership. (Contact the author at adentith@uwm.edu) 

Dentith, A. (2002). Using Feminist theory in teacher education. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education [online], 4 (2), 25 paragraphs <Available: http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2002fall/dentith.html> [your access year, month date]