Repositioning Feminism & Education: Perspectives on Educating for Social Change

This book presents testimony of feminisms in process. The accounts are filled with tensions, not least an uneasiness with feminism itself, and the question of what exactly it means to be a feminist in education in the contemporary world. It is their respect for their own differences and the honesty with which they write that makes this such a rich text.

From the Foreword by Kathleen Weiler

Educators committed to social change face the common dilemma of how to take up the work of transformation without reinscribing systems of domination. The struggle with the concept of imposition is central to the emergence of many educators’ identities and provides a site for exploring the complex relationship between power, knowledge, and teacher identity. This book chronicles the collaborative efforts of five diverse women educators (Native American, European, Jewish American, rural, midwestern, working class) to grapple with the tensions of taking up a political position while honoring the cultural, social, and historical context of others. Their dialogue across feminist, critical, and postmodern theories and practices explores the process of fusing theory with political work in the world. What emerges is the continual repositioning and disruption of taken for granted meanings as central to enhancing emancipatory education.