A theoretical approach to gender studies course in terms of feminist pedagogy

Abstract

The article studies how feminist pedagogy in gender education is used to transform the mindset of students, their families and ultimately society. Brazilian theorist Paul Freire describes the oppressor-oppressed (discriminatory) relationship in society in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. According to Freire, education is a direct political act and can transform society as well as a libertarian style of pedagogy where everyone speaks, expresses their opinions and attains their rights. In feminist pedagogy inspired by Freire, the structures and systems that sustain the discrimination against women are identified as early as the school level and are subsequently transformed to minimize negative attitudes toward girls.

 Feminist pedagogy, started to take its place in academia as a field that supports the critical thinking structure after the 1980s in Turkey. It aims to strengthen the student’s self-esteem, independence and questioning abilities, especially to criticize the patriarchal social structure and to promote the gender equality. Feminist pedagogy is applied in the state and private universities in Turkey. The paper focuses on the author’s teaching experience of “Gender Studies” course with 348 Turkish and foreign students in a private university in Istanbul between 2019–2022. Feminist pedagogy was applied in terms of the content and method in the classroom and the survey that was conducted to measure the impacts of the method in terms of transformation. The paper contributes to gender studies of scholars with a feminist perspective on how to apply that methodology. Based on a study of the effectiveness of teaching the mentioned discipline, recommendations for improving the pedagogical content were made.