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Feminist Pedagogy A Means for Bringing Critical Thinking and Creativity to the Economics Classroom Jean Shackelford The past decade has produced a plethora of reports critical of higher education, and many of these reports suggest that classroom activities focus on more than the transmission or transfer of knowledge from teacher to student (Derek Bok 1986; Ernest L. Boyer 1987; Association of American Colleges 1985). Economic education has not escaped these critiques (John Siegfried et al. 1991). Within the same time span pedagogical approaches that focus on critical thinking and inquiry have emerged. Exposure to innovative curricular-reform programs introduced many instructors to Socratic or dialogic approaches to teaching and to collaborative learning. Programs focusing on transforming courses and curricula to include race, class, and gender acquainted some instructors with methods involved in feminist pedagogy and inquiry. The term feminist pedagogy was coined during the 1980s to incorporate a wide variety of teaching methods and approaches in the classroom that were first adopted by feminists in women's studies programs and later adopted by men and women teaching in various disciplines. This essay introduces economists to feminist pedagogy and its underlying foundations and focuses on how feminist pedagogy fosters elements of critical thinking. Economists will recognize a distinct contrast to the prevailing discourse in the discipline. Feminist Pedagogy-An Overview Central to the agenda of feminist pedagogy is empowering students to become critical and creative learners. In fostering critical and creative thinking , it is important that students are encouraged to engage freely in the discourse of the discipline and come to rely less on the authority of the instructor. Feminist pedagogy is often described as student-centered (as opposed to subject- or teacher-centered). It is less hierarchical and emphasizes cooperation and community. 19 Feminist Pedagogy A Means for Bringing Critical Thinking and Creativity to the Economics Classroom Jean Shackelford The past decade has produced a plethora of reports critical of higher education, and many of these reports suggest that classroom activities focus on more than the transmission or transfer of knowledge from teacher to student (Derek Bok 1986; Ernest 1. Boyer 1987; Association of American Colleges 1985). Economic education has not escaped these critiques (John Siegfried et al. 1991). Within the same time span pedagogical approaches that focus on critical thinking and inquiry have emerged. Exposure to innovative curricular-reform programs introduced many instructors to Socratic or dialogic approaches to teaching and to collaborative learning. Programs focusing on transforming courses and curricula to include race, class, and gender acquainted some instructors with methods involved in feminist pedagogy and inquiry. The term feminist pedagogy was coined during the 1980s to incorporate a wide variety of teaching methods and approaches in the classroom that were first adopted by feminists in women's studies programs and later adopted by men and women teaching in various disciplines. This essay introduces economists to feminist pedagogy and its underlying foundations and focuses on how feminist pedagogy fosters elements of critical thinking. Economists will recognize a distinct contrast to the prevailing discourse in the discipline. Feminist Pedagogy-An Overview Central to the agenda of feminist pedagogy is empowering students to become critical and creative learners. In fostering critical and creative thinking , it is important that students are encouraged to engage freely in the discourse of the discipline and come to rely less on the authority of the instructor. Feminist pedagogy is often described as student-centered (as opposed to subject- or teacher-centered). It is less hierarchical and emphasizes cooperation and community. 19 20 Valuing Us All One must recognize at the outset that feminist pedagogy relies, like feminist theory, on ideologies, epistemologies, and methodologies that are negotiated and changing. Mary Bricker-Jenkins and Nancy Hooyman (1987, 36) point out that any discussion of feminist ideology must be one of "an open system... criticized from within and open to exchange with other ideologies, it advances through dialogue." Knowledge claims are filtered through one's social position or social location (Helen E. Longino 1990). The philosopher Sandra Harding (1991, 6) notes that "Feminist analyses of science, technology, and knowledge are not monolithic. . .. There is no single set of claims beyond a few generalities that could be called 'feminism' without controversy among feminists. The feminist science discussions are both enriched and constrained by the different political, practical, and conceptual perspectives that they bring to bear on science, its beliefs, practices, and institutions." For these reasons, I cannot argue here that there is some "essential feminist pedagogy." There are, however...

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