Feminism, Intersectionality, and Gender Category: Essential Contributions for Historical Thinking Development

María Del Consuelo Díez-Bedmar

doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.842580

Abstract

The following article inquires how introducing the gender category, feminism theories, and intersectionality into social sciences education, especially regarding historical thinking development, could be key for the construction of a more critical and egalitarian future. The main research problem is knowing how the use of the gender category is included, or not, in the development of historical thinking in pre-service teacher beliefs and how it could condition them when they work on historical and social problems in the classroom. The main objective is to analyze the historical thinking development in pre-service Spanish teacher students and their capacity for constructing critical discourses with a gender perspective. Pre-service teachers of five Spanish universities (of the Primary and Secondary Education Degree) were asked about a report from a digital newspaper version that forces them to use historical thinking and to consider gender stereotypes and prejudices. Their responses were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicate that pre-service teachers are not able to identify their own gender roles and prejudiced attitudes when they attempt to explain a social problem and they propose solutions, even when they could verify that there was another manner to understand this report. Hence, this research highlights the relevance of implementing feminism, intersectionality, and gender category for historical thinking development since these future teachers need to work around democratic culture competences. By contrast, not including this perspective will lead to them still maintaining historical thinking and democracy configured on hegemonic, heteropatriarchal, sexist, and Eurocentric cultural models.

Highlights

IntroductionIn the 21st century, our societies are trying to contribute to the development of the Sustainable Development Goals and, at the same time, to achieve concrete targets by 2030 (in our research, it is linked to SDGs 4 and 5)
It is true that educational activities have been increased in the area of gender equality, but as Cobo Bedía (2005, p. 250) pointed out, “In recent years, the notion of gender detached from feminism is being used in both academic and political spheres, despite of the fact that this concept emerges as an instrument for the analysis of feminist theory.”
In the face of the strengthening of feminist epistemologies, the transfer of their advances to the educational field has been largely diluted in actions concentrated in the months of March and November, the incorporation of some elements of women’s history in textbooks or the curricula highlighted in the equality plans of schools, and the emergence of standard phrases in curriculum programming which, despite being subject to constant evaluations by quality agencies, do not analyze or evaluate the instruments with which they are applied or the students’ learning outcomes

Summary

Introduction

In the 21st century, our societies are trying to contribute to the development of the Sustainable Development Goals and, at the same time, to achieve concrete targets by 2030 (in our research, it is linked to SDGs 4 and 5). Since the 1980s, have been providing the configuration of specific critical theories of knowledge, at the same time that they were facing multiple acts of structural violence within the system itself for its acceptance. These acts of violence are still present today, since we could say that what Puleo García (2005) calls “patriarchy of consent” and an “ice law” (or mistreatment through silence) of the gender perspective in the education system have been imposed, relegating it to a second place, diluting the contributions of feminist epistemology and its demands, questions, and proposals, without incorporating it into practice in the classroom. It is true that educational activities have been increased in the area of gender equality, but as Cobo Bedía (2005, p. 250) pointed out, “In recent years, the notion of gender detached from feminism is being used in both academic and political spheres, despite of the fact that this concept emerges as an instrument for the analysis of feminist theory.” in the face of the strengthening of feminist epistemologies, the transfer of their advances to the educational field has been largely diluted in actions concentrated in the months of March and November (coinciding with the anniversaries of 8 March and 25 November), the incorporation of some elements of women’s history in textbooks or the curricula highlighted in the equality plans of schools, and the emergence of standard phrases in curriculum programming which, despite being subject to constant evaluations by quality agencies, do not analyze or evaluate the instruments with which they are applied or the students’ learning outcomes

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion