Teaching with the third wave new feminists - MailChimp

As earlier noted, there are certainly notable exceptions to this, particularly asevidenced by thematic working groups such as ATHENA3’s ICT in Women’sStudies whose efforts are noteworthy in promoting feminist research andtechnological/e-learning best practices within and outside the classroom. YetI would argue that despite the significant efforts on the part of ATHENA3’sICT working group, third wave feminists’ pedagogic and ICT training remainsa patch-work of practices, pieced together through their experiences teachingalongside senior level faculty as apprentice instructors and via informal, albeitproductive conversations with graduate and junior level faculty colleagues abouthow best to cultivate an interdisciplinary, feminist classroom space that utilizestechnology in creative and innovative ways. So while thematically boundedworking groups like ATHENA3’s ICT in Women’s Studies prove invaluablein strategizing how to incorporate ICTs into feminist classrooms spaces and intransferring knowledge across national and institutional borders, there appearsto be an additional need to institutionalize such insights into the advanceddegree training and professional development of third wave feminist scholars attheir respective institutions during and after their postgraduate studies.In addition to creating more formalized sites for third wave feministsto discuss and exchange ideas about pedagogy, there is likewise a need to maphow they are teaching gender and using ICT in the classroom and whethersuch efforts efficaciously bridge exigent gaps between curricular content andpedagogic practice. Here Gill Kirkup’s observation is noteworthy. She states:“It is sad but true that feminist pedagogy, Women’s Studies and Gender Studieshas produced radical and influential content, but their pedagogic practiceshave become restrictive and unadventurous, particularly with respect to mediause.” 6 Chief among my interests is gauging whether third wave feminists havecontinued the “restrictive and unadventurous” pedagogic practices that Kirkupalludes to or whether they, like members of ATHENA3’s ICT working group,are instead re-vamping and successfully merging theoretical content withinnovative technology and media use in feminist classrooms.Deconstructing and productively harnessing the tensions betweencurriculum and pedagogy seems of particular importance for third wave feminists,specifically those disciplined and institutionalized in Women’s and Gender Studiesprograms since they have inherited thirty plus years of politicized, transformative,and discipline-bending intellectual work alongside university settings increasingly6Gill Kirkup, 27-28.100