Teaching with feminist values: A dialogical narrative analysis of gender studies educator narratives

Abstract

This chapter uses dialogical narrative analysis to examine four Gender Studies educator narratives. Considering that Women’s/Gender Studies have often pointed to institutional inequalities within the institution of higher education itself, I ask: How do Gender Studies educators in Norway and Japan situate and position themselves pedagogically within the discursive landscape surrounding Gender Studies as it exists in the academy today? To what extent is there room for a transnational ‘we’ in Gender Studies education that might benefit from collective pedagogical strategies? What is to be gained by examining Gender Studies education in Norway and Japan in a cross-cultural perspective? I conclude that educators in both Japan and Norway are concerned with approaching students in different ways – and in line with feminist values – than is the norm elsewhere in higher education.