Feminist Pedagogy, Interdisciplinary Praxis, and Science Education

Abstract

As a theoretical and methodological practice, feminist pedagogy embraces a commitment to incorporating the voices and experiences of marginalized students into the academic discourse as well as educating all students for social justice and social change (Kenway and Modra; Maher; Rosser; Shrewsbury). At its core, feminist pedagogy is a commitment not only to the development of cooperative, multicultural, and interdisciplinary knowledge that makes learning inviting and meaningful to a diverse population but also to the development of a critical consciousness empowered to apply learning to social action and social transformation. Although the theory and practice of feminist pedagogy is an increasingly familiar concept to women's studies educators around the country, few science educators have yet to acknowledge its potential to transform the traditional conceptualizations of scientific thought that fail to investigate the role of culture in the production, dissemination, and utilization of scientific knowledge (Bleir; Harding, Forum; Shulman). This article focuses on our vision of how social, scientific, and feminist inquiry and teaching can be drawn together to create a new vision of science education. What follows reflects our experience as two feminist educators teaching a unique interdisciplinary course, Earth Systems: A Feminist Approach. Earth Systems infuses geological education with the insights of sociological inquiry and feminist pedagogy and was offered in Spring 1995 for credit through the departments of geology, sociology, and women's studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Seventeen white undergraduate students (fourteen females and three males), ranging from sophomore to senior level, enrolled for and completed the course. Twelve students were social science or humanities majors; three students were women's studies majors; two students were natural science majors. In addition, we granted permission to one female graduate student from the environmental studies program to enroll in the course. She received