Teaching feminist activism : strategies from the field 9781315811253, 1315811251, 9781317794981, 1317794982, 041593186X, 0415931878

Table of contents :
Content: Introduction, Teaching feminist activism experientially / Karen Bojar and Nancy A. Naples --
Dynamics of critical pedagogy, experiential learning, and feminist praxis in women's studies / Nancy A. Naples --
Collaborative learning, subversive teaching, and activism / Jane A. Rinehart --
Challenging the "academic/real world" divide / Catherine M. Orr --
Teaching feminist activism : probing our assumptions, analyzing our choices / Karen Bojar --
Teaching community action in the introductory women's studies classroom / Nancy A. Naples --
Bridging feminist theory and feminist practice in a senior seminar / Jennifer L. Rexroat --
Activism and the women's studies curriculum / Ellen Cronan Rose --
Global feminism and activism in a women's studies practicum / Kayann Short --
Globalization and radical feminist pedagogy / Anna M. Agathangelou. Activism and alliance within campus sisterhood organizations / Simona J. Hill --
Individual and collective rewards of community-based service learning / Patricia Washington --
Building feminist educational alliances in an urban community / Melissa Kesler Gilbert and Catherine Sameh --
Women's leadership and social change in the Atlanta Semester Program / Isa D. Williams --
Women's studies and the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative / Katherine Rhoades, Anne Statham, and Mary Kay Schleiter --
Becoming feminist cyber ethnographers / Rebecca Anne Allahyari --
Conclusion, Reflections on the present and future of feminist praxis in women's studies / Karen Bojar and Nancy A. Naples.

Citation preview

Teaching Feminist Activism: Strategies from the Field

Edited by

Nancy A. Naples and Karen Bojar

*

Teaching Feminist Activism

T h is p a g e in ten tion ally left b lan k

Teaching Feminist Activism Strategies from the Field Edited by N A N C Y A. N A P L E S A N D K A R E N B O JA R

IJ Routledge Taylor & Francis Group New York London

Published in 2002 by Routlcdgc 711 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2002 by Routledge All rights reserved. No part o f this book may be reprinted, reproduced, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Teaching feminist activism : strategies from the field / edited by Nancy A. Naples and Karen Bojar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-93186-X — ISBN 0-415-93187-8 (pbk.) 1. Feminism— Study and teaching (Higher)— United States. 2. Social action— Study and teaching— United States. I. Naples, Nancy A. II. Bojar, Karen. HQ1426 .T42 2002 305.42'07 l ' l — d c2 1 2002016556

Contents

vii

P refa ce

1

In

: Teaching Feminist Activism Experientially Karen Bojar and Nancy A. Naples

t r o d u c t io n

1

I. Theorizing Experiential Learning and Activist Strategies

2

The Dynamics o f Critical Pedagogy, Experiential Learning, and Feminist Praxis in Women’s Studies Nancy A. Naples

9

3

Collaborative Learning, Subversive Teaching, and Activism Jane A. Rinehart

22

4

Challenging the “Academic / Real World” Divide Catherine M. Orr

36

5

Teaching Feminist Activism: Probing Our Assumptions, Analyzing Our Choices Karen Bojar

54

II. Teaching Feminist Politics Experientially

6

7

8

Teaching Community Action in the Introductory Women’s Studies Classroom Nancy A. Naples

71

Bridging Feminist Theory and Feminist Practice in a Senior Seminar Jennifer L. Rexroat

95

Activism and the Women’s Studies Curriculum Ellen Cronan Rose

v

108

Strategies from the Field

III. Teaching Intersectionally: The Politics of Gender, Race, Class, and Globalization

9

Global Feminism and Activism in a Women’s Studies Practicum Kayann Short

123

10

Globalization and Radical Feminist Pedagogy Anna M .Agathangelou

138

11

Activism and Alliance within Campus Sisterhood Organizations Sim ona J. H ill

154

12

The Individual and Collective Rewards o f Community-Based Service Learning Patricia Washington

166

IV. Women's Studies, Experiential Education, and Community Partnerships

13

14

15

Building Feminist Educational Alliances in an Urban Community M elissa Kesler Gilbert and Catherine Sameh

185

Women’s Leadership and Social Change in the Atlanta Semester Program Isa D. W illiam s

207

Women’s Studies and the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative Katherine Rhoades, Anne Statham , and M ary Kay Schleiter

221

V. Using the Web for Teaching Feminist Politics

16

Becoming Feminist Cyber Ethnographers Rebecca Anne Allahyari

17

Co

W A

n c l u s i o n : Reflections on the Present and Future o f Feminist Praxis in Women’s Studies Karen Bojar and Nancy A. Naples

orks

C

R

eso u r c es:

Reference Guides, Videos, and Websites for Teaching Feminist Activism Prepared by Joan Ariel and Jennifer Rogers C

o n t r ib u t o r s

Index

255

259

it e d

d d it io n a l

236

272

309 315

Preface

Teaching Feminist Activism is designed as a resource for feminist faculty interested in linking feminist theoretical perspectives and case studies on political activism with feminist pedagogy and experiential learning. This edited collec­ tion presents diverse theoretical approaches, methodological strategies, and practical teaching tools for feminist faculty in a variety o f college and univer­ sity settings. Authors demonstrate the value of, and challenges faced, when feminist faculty attempt to integrate experiential learning and research on feminist activism into their classrooms. The collection includes descriptions o f internship program s, relevant videos, and related teaching materials that have proven valuable in working with students to encourage their under­ standing o f feminist political activism through experiential learning. Contributors to the collection represent a wide range o f disciplinary and interdisciplinary locations: ethnic studies, literary studies, sociology, social work, economic development, architecture, anthropology, political science, and education as well as women’s studies. All but one essay (Naples, chapter 6) are original manuscripts published here for the first time. We are grateful to Ilene Kalish for her encouragement and resourcefulness in bringing this collection to life, and to Kimberly Guinta for her excellent editorial assistance. We would also like to thank Chrys Ingraham and an anonymous reviewer for their useful comments on our book proposal and selected chapters. We are also extremely grateful to Berenice Fisher and Pat Huckle for their insightful and detailed suggestions on the draft o f the full manuscript. We could not have completed this book withoutjennifer Rogers’s tireless efforts and commitment to the project. Jennifer read each essay, edited the chapters, and worked with authors throughout the revision process. She also collaborated with Joan Ariel, University o f California Irvine’s wom en’s studies librarian extraordinare, to generate a thorough bibliography o f sources that maps the field o f feminist pedagogy, feminist praxis, women’s com m u­ nity activism, and women’s movements.

Teaching

Fem inist A ctivism

Strategies from the Field

As editors, we collectively bring over forty years o f experience in con­ ducting experiential learning in women’s studies classrooms for the purposes o f teaching feminist politics. In the next two sections, we independently dis­ cuss how we came together to pursue this book project.

Experiential Learning in Women's Studies— Karen Bojar's Reflections

Working on this collection has been a rewarding experience for me. First, col­ laborating with Nancy has been particularly rewarding. As someone once reluctant to embrace e-mail and the Internet, I would not have believed that an online collaboration could have worked so well. Also, the opportunity to learn about a range o f m odels and resources for incorporating an experiential component in women’s studies courses has clar­ ified my own thinking about the sometime unexamined assumptions under­ lying my classroom practice. Those o f us who juggle heavy teaching loads, activist commitments and family obligations often find it difficult to carve out the time for reading and reflection. I confess one powerful response I had to working on this collection was envy. As a community-college teacher, I am lucky to teach one introduction section o f women’s studies each semester. Teaching a seminar on feminist activism is an unrealizable dream. On the other hand, this twinge o f envy is countered by the realization that an urban community college is a wonderful base for an activist. One o f the greatest satisfacttions o f my teaching career is sharing my knowledge o f local activist networks with my students. I have introduced them to local fem­ inist organizations, recommended several for the boards o f local community organizations, and seen some become staff members for local feminist and pro­ gressive organizations. Despite these rewards o f community-college teaching, I long for time to step back from the day-to-day struggles and explore the larger issues. I work with a wonderful group o f women in the local chapter o f the National Orga­ nization for Women, but we are always focused on the current struggle, the current election cycle. I once thought o f suggesting a study group where we would read the works o f feminist historians, sociologists, economists, and political theorists, but I know the reaction would be: “ Nice idea, but who has the time?” My community-college colleagues who also teach courses in our fledg­ ling women’s studies/gender studies program are not local activists; the meet­ ings o f our women’s studies program, which I coordinate, are focused on such

P r e fa c e

and how can we get administrative support to develop new courses. Urgent matters to be sure, but not a source o f intellectual stimulation and growth. In a sense, the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) annual con­ ference has been a lifeline, a once-a-year opportunity to discuss recent schol­ arship on fem inist movem ents and to probe som e o f the deeper issues underlying our choice o f activist projects and the intellectual context we try to provide. For me, the idea for this book grew out o f discussions o f the NWSA Feminism and Activism Interest Group form ed at the 1999 NWSA con­ ference in Albuquerque. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day pres­ sure o f designing syllabi, gathering resources, and helping our students design activist projects while trying to maintain our ow n com m itm ent to feminist organizing (which in these conservative times is so often reactive in n ature). We often do not stop to think about why we are channeling our energy in this direction, or into these organizations, why we encourage stu­ dents to choose particular activist projects, or whether our students (and our own) short-term projects are connected to a larger strategy, a broader vision. Reading these essays has me aware o f the range o f possibilities, helping me avoid becoming too comfortable with my choices, too certain o f my analysis. This collection has also made me aware o f the tension between the goal o f deepening students’ awareness o f fem inist issues and prom oting activities m ost likely to advance a feminist agenda. Although many o f us see ourselves as advancing both goals, and dearly they are mutually reinforcing, the limited time at our disposal may force us to give greater emphasis to one or the other. Most o f the students I teach are usually not in need o f consciousnessraising; they usually do understand race, class, and gender oppression. What they need are the tools to combat inequality. They need to learn about the range o f organizations working for social change, both explicitly feminist organizations and the range o f progressive organizations advancing goals con­ sistent with a feminist agenda. They also need to know about the possibilities for advancing a feminist agenda within the labor unions and professional organizations to which they may already belong (in the case o f the older stu­ dents) or to which they may join when they enter the full-time workforce. I realize that in other institutions, raising students’ awareness o f race, class, or gender oppression is the first priority; several contributors to this collec­ tion have made a case for experiential education as a powerful tool for coun­ tering student resistance to an analysis o f these issues. The essays in this collection demonstrate that strategies will and should vary according to insti­ tutional context.

Nancy A. Naples and Karen Bojar

issues as how to enroll more students in our classes so they are not canceled

Teaching

Fem inist A c tiv ism

Strategies from the Field

Feminist Praxis and Experiential Learning— Nancy Naples's Reflections

In the fall o f 1999, I rem em ber seeing an e-mail from Karen Bojar, who reported that a group on activism had been form ed during the 1999 National W omen’s Studies Association. I wrote to Karen and asked to be included in their new listserv. Karen replied to my e-mail saying that she had used my book Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work, and the War on Poverty (1 9 9 8 ) and found it to be useful in teaching about w om en’s community activism. Since she lived in Philadelphia, one o f the two cities I highlight in the book, she had appreciated reading about the community activism o f women in her city. Over e-mail we shared our interest in teaching w om en’s studies students about activism experientially. We discussed how each o f us tried to teach politics in our classrooms. Karen then told me o f her interest in producing an edited collection that would be useful for w om en’s studies and other feminist faculty interested in teaching feminist praxis (i.e., linking the­ ory and practice), and thus our collaboration began. This has been one o f the most satisfying collaborations, though I have yet to meet Karen face-to-face. We have been fortunate to have the rare experience o f sharing a vision o f the classroom as a site for teaching feminist praxis, a belief in the value o f experiential learning, and a commitment to action that moved this project along in almost record speed. Sending out a call on the w om en’s studies listserv and tapping into our different communities, we were able to attract authors who also wish to share their experiences in activistoriented classrooms with other feminist faculty. The ease with which we have collaborated is especially noteworthy given that Karen and I teach in very different kinds o f institutions. Karen’s career has been spent at an urban, working-class community college in Philadelphia. My experiences have been primarily within women’s studies program s in research universities, first at Iowa State University and then at the University o f Califor­ nia, Irvine (UCI). However, the differences we have had in our teaching expe­ riences served to com plem ent what we each had to bring to this collective project. Our work has been further helped by the assistance o f Jennifer Rogers, an undergraduate wom en’s studies and sociology m ajor at UCI who I have been fortunate to work with since she first took my introductory w om en’s studies course as a first-year student. I w ould also like to thank the W omen’s Studies Program at UCI, and the Department o f Sociology at the University o f Connecticut for providing the funds for research assistance to help complete this project. Thanks to UConn

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Nancy A. Naples and Karen B