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Transformative Spaces: Feminist Pedagogy in Academic Conferencing
In our collective journey as women deeply immersed in the world of online higher education, we have steadfastly embraced the tenets of feminist pedagogy. Our approach is grounded in the ethos of collaboration and communal contribution, underpinned by a strong commitment to authenticity, inclusivity, and the acknowledgment of diverse lived experiences. This dedication to feminist…
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Supporting Online Student Persistence:
I’m an avid podcast listener, and I cherish those moments when I can relax and enjoy some downtime with my miniature schnauzer, Heiter, who lives up to his name by always being a cheerful presence. As I was recently engrossed in a podcast episode about the subtle presence of patriarchy in our relationships with dogs,…
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Harnessing Generative AI to Support Feminist Pedagogy
As I welcomed my first-year students to class this semester, I posed a simple question: Who had used ChatGPT before? To my surprise, not a single hand went up. It became evident that many students had been discouraged or even barred from using ChatGPT in their previous educational experiences. Only one student in the class…
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Time Equity for Mothers through Labor-Based Grading
In 2022, I left Texas and made a ten-day journey to Fairbanks, Alaska for graduate school. When I arrived, I came as a single mother with a three-year-old son and a list of worries I was intent to leave at the door. In fact, I arrived at my Teaching Assistant Orientation with a stroller and…
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Online Moms: Distance Education and Women Nontraditional Students
Online education can provide a range of advantages for women, particularly those who face barriers to accessing traditional education due to family responsibilities, financial constraints, or social norms. These programs attract women students because of their flexibility and the possibility of managing existing family commitments while obtaining a degree-level education. Although there is an extensive…
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Allowing for Silence in the Asynchronous Online Classroom
A pedagogy of listening in a first year composition class necessitates allowing for silence. But what does silence look like in a course taught asynchronously and online? This past semester I taught first year college composition alongside a team of two fellow graduate teaching assistants. Our class was a hybrid online/in person model, which was…
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Power to the People! Vernaculars are Revolutionary
The day after I first read about “other Englishes” in my pedagogy class, an old friend remarked that I never speak anything but “the Queen’s English.” I was sad to admit he was right. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m an English teacher—I love English! That’s why I love “other Englishes.” Other Englishes arise and flourish when…
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Feminist Pedagogy after Roe
The recently leaked SCOTUS draft decision on Dobbs v. Jackson has generated turmoil in the lives of many feminist educators and their students. Although the final decision will not be released until this summer, experts agree that it is unlikely to change much from the leaked draft. Long-time activists, advocates, and scholars of reproductive rights,…
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Invitational rhetoric is powerful, but it needs a collective!
In the fall semester of 2021, four first-year graduate students, and one adjunct instructor and academic advisor, were connected to team-teach an asynchronous, first-year composition course. Our approach to team teaching used invitational rhetoric as a strategy to help students feel more comfortable sharing their ideas and writing since it deemphasizes argument and emphasizes the…
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Considering the Consequences of Continuing on as Normal
As students reviewed the prompt for their second essay of the semester, I started to get nervous. I could sense, almost tangibly, an overwhelming feeling of burnout from everyone. In my first-year writing courses, some version of this happens right around the fourth paper of the semester. To try and ameliorate those issues, I typically…
Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online
A Digital Guide