Feminist Perspectives on Educa

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Feminist theorists including bell hooks have argued that education is "the practice of freedom." At its best, education isexperienced as liberatory and freeing. It supports community, creativity, and joy. Students and teachers workcollaboratively to co-create knowledge, analyze critically, and transform the world. In this seminar, we will studyfeminist philosophies of teaching and learning that have opposed forms of education that are alienating and exclusive.After all, education has been a form of debt production, it has sometimes centered job credentials at the expense ofcritical study, and many people have been made to feel like "school" is not for them. Our class will prioritize primarysources in order to analyze examples of unique education projects such as those that support working-class people toauthor poetry. How are people who care about public libraries and mutual aid work imagining "school" anew? Studentswill have opportunities to self-direct their learning and to investigate feminist perspectives on the many contentioustopics currently animating higher education. Together, we will ask big questions: What counts as "education," who is deserving of access, and what are its core purposes?