After a brief hiatus, the Feminist Pedagogy group at Winona State has returned.

The newly reformed group met Monday at the Blue Heron at 3 p.m.

This session was an opportunity for faculty members to discuss and strategize about applying feminist pedagogy to diverse classroom environments. 

Feminist pedagogy is a theory on the subject of teaching, about institutions where learning occurs, and about the democratic creation of knowledge.

Topics of discussion cover how professors can implement feminist pedagogy in the classroom.

Other questions professors ask is how feminist approaches apply to a non-Women’s Studies classroom and how teaching philosophy and pedagogical practices are affected by the debates.

The discussion group consists of

16 members, both female and male faculty members from different departments at the university.

Professors who use feminist pedagogy believe in establishing a collaborative learning environment where student ideas count as contributions to knowledge.

They also believe that students must learn to be responsible for their own learning.

Feminist pedagogy in the classroom means that students are more responsible for the creation of knowledge.

 The emphasis in a feminist classroom is on students’ understanding and synthesis of course readings and discussion for their own purposes and goals.

This does not mean, however, that students can never be wrong; the professor’s job, in this context, is to suggest to students when interpretations are not grounded in defensible interpretations of facts or texts.

The discussion group is aimed at understanding both their own views and the views that they do not agree with, Tamara Berg said.

Feminist theory and pedagogy require the faculty to understand and be responsible for the particular positions that they take up, defend and espouse.

That means realizing the moral, social and psychological stakes in any idea, theory or action.

“The goal of our meeting is to ensure a successful retention of fellow colleague and their success as professionals in their discipline,” Berg said.