Feminist Engagements: Reading, Resisting, and Revisioning Male Theorists in Education and Cultural Studies (review)

Kathleen Weiler's edited collection engages feminist scholarship with the work of key male theorists in educational theory. Pairings between feminist scholars and male theorists include Frances Maher on John Dewey, Cally Waite on W. E. B. Du Bois, Kathleen Weiler on Paulo Freire, Annette Henry on Stuart Hall, and Patti Lather on Peter McLaren. Despite the far-reaching influence and contributions of the men who are the subject of these essays, the work of these male scholars contains omissions that present challenges for those pursuing research on gender. These essays raise provocative questions about how feminist perspectives might reshape educational theory. As captured by the book's subtitle, the relationship between the essays' authors and the theorists about whom they write is one of resistance, revision, and new insight.

Weiler's introduction frames the essays with two questions: Can feminists appropriate male theories that disregard gender? Should feminists reject or attempt to subvert "patriarchal philosophy and male-dominated political movements" (11)? Although both questions raise the possibility of rejecting male theory, none of the essays entertains dismissal as a viable option. Instead, the volume is grounded in a recognition of intertwined intellectual traditions and the productive intersections between feminist and nonfeminist theories.

While these questions in themselves are not new to feminist analysis, the collection contributes to our understanding of the personal and professional risks of feminist critique. Reworking the ideas of the "Great Men" of one's academic training can be a treacherous endeavor, particularly in fields such as education that have relied on deeply gendered notions of men's and women's roles. Despite the book's broad relevance, my comments will focus on the relationship between feminist concerns and male theory and alternatives to additive approaches to women in the history of education. Too often women in the history of education such as Jane Addams or Anna Julia Cooper are depicted as the "dutiful daughters" of men such as John Dewey or W. E. B. Du Bois. As stated by Petra Munro, "The 'traffic in women' is what makes curriculum history as we know it possible. Women, if they appear at all, are the 'good daughters.' They carry out the ideas of the father, thus securing his position as the originator.... The dutiful daughter reproduces but is never generative in her own right." ¹

The essays of Feminist Engagements disrupt this history of filial subservience and draw attention to the personal and complex dynamics involved in women's critiques of male theorists. In addition to reading male theories through the lens of gender, many of the authors explore how one's positionality shapes the possibilities of feminist critique. A woman's ethnicity, class, or geographical location often compounds the potential repercussions of her challenge to established male authority. For example, Frances Maher's essay on Dewey asks, "For feminists, this question of whether we seek to revise or overthrow our intellectual forebears is a familiar one. It has to do, once again, with excavating a lifelong conversation with a deeply respected father/authority figure and finding out where we both stand" (14). Kathleen Weiler's essay on Freire includes her experience of being challenged at a conference on her right, as a white, U.S. woman, to criticize Freire. Weiler qualifies her reading of Freire by acknowledging the complexity of "the question of authority" and the question of "who can speak" (73). Annette Henry's self-described "dangerous" engagement with the work of Stuart Hall further illustrates these issues of authority and voice in relation to race. She undertakes the project with significant reservations: might not writing about Hall fuel expectations that black women fit their work to existing theoretical frameworks and further reinforce the "hegemonic and elite 'grand narrative' of the Britishness of British cultural studies"? Henry also questions whether her discussion of a black male scholar for inclusion in a white feminist project...