Feminist Critical Literacy. From Mainstream Culture to Didactic Produsage

Abstract

This book explores, as one of the priorities of the feminist agenda in the 21st century, feminist education and awareness in pre-service and in-service teacher training. Although feminism is constantly present in political discourse and social media, it is not examined sufficiently in the classroom. This situation means that students approach feminism through media culture, lacking the feminist knowledge necessary to teach disciplinary knowledge from the feminist perspective. Feminist theory, as a critical theory, provides teacher training based on the formation of critical-creative thinking and the resolute interpretation of the relevant social issues of the world in which we live. We understand the process of ‘Feminist Critical Literacy’ outlined here as a plan to find a feminist utopia, specifically, in the training of teachers from all disciplines, although more oriented towards the Social and Human Sciences and Artistic Education through the use of multimodality as a pedagogical approach. If future teachers do not develop feminist cognitive lenses, they will not be prepared to teach women’s experiences and gender perspectives to their own students. This would then contribute to the endurance of an androcentric culture where there are no women’s models that can serve as a stimulus or be historical references for female students. Our idea of Feminist Critical Literacy stems from feminist literary criticism and critical literacy. Feminist Critical Literacy is defined as the hermeneutical process of suspicion (mainstream culture) and of performative deconstruction of multimodal texts (didactic produsage), the purpose of which is to generate feminist consciousness in teachers from an intersectional perspective; through the acquisition of critical, creative, empathetic, aesthetic, and empowering competencies that contribute to the formation of a fair, equal, and equitable glocal citizenship. This book explores, as one of the priorities of the feminist agenda in the 21st century, feminist education and awareness in pre-service and in-service teacher training. Although feminism is constantly present in political discourse and social media, it is not examined sufficiently in the classroom. This situation means that students approach feminism through media culture, lacking the feminist knowledge necessary to teach disciplinary knowledge from the feminist perspective. Feminist theory, as a critical theory, provides teacher training based on the formation of critical-creative thinking and the resolute interpretation of the relevant social issues of the world in which we live. We understand the process of ‘Feminist Critical Literacy’ outlined here as a plan to find a feminist utopia, specifically, in the training of teachers from all disciplines, although more oriented towards the Social and Human Sciences and Artistic Education through the use of multimodality as a pedagogical approach. If future teachers do not develop feminist cognitive lenses, they will not be prepared to teach women’s experiences and gender perspectives to their own students. This would then contribute to the endurance of an androcentric culture where there are no women’s models that can serve as a stimulus or be historical references for female students. Our idea of Feminist Critical Literacy stems from feminist literary criticism and critical literacy. Feminist Critical Literacy is defined as the hermeneutical process of suspicion (mainstream culture) and of performative deconstruction of multimodal texts (didactic produsage), the purpose of which is to generate feminist consciousness in teachers from an intersectional perspective; through the acquisition of critical, creative, empathetic, aesthetic, and empowering competencies that contribute to the formation of a fair, equal, and equitable glocal citizenship.