Family Science Faculty Members' Experiences With Teaching From a Feminist Perspective*

• Author: Karen R. Blaisure,Julie M. Koivunen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2003.00022.x
• Published date: 01 January 2003
• Date: 01 January 2003

22 Family Relations

Family Science Faculty Members’ Experiences With Teaching

From a Feminist Perspective*

Karen R. Blaisure** and Julie M. Koivunen

Telephone interviews were conducted with 25 family science faculty members who were self-identified feminist teachers to explore how

they conceptualized teaching, translated feminist theory into classroom practice, understood their own and students’ reactions to

teaching, and responded to challenging situations. Their accounts illustrate a commitment to students, the centrality of dialogue as a

teaching strategy and as an indication of successful teaching, and the congruency in personal and professional ideology offered by a

feminist perspective. These results highlight the opportunity for teachers to focus sincerely on the interpersonal dimension of the

classroom, acquire the interpersonal skills to promote dialogue and to convey respect and care of students, encourage the practice of

reflexivity, and approach teaching with integrity.

The field of family science contains exemplary accounts of

feminist approaches to the scholarship of teaching. Schol-

ars have described the assumptions and values of feminist

praxis (Allen, 1988; Walker, Martin, & Thompson, 1988); the

continuing need for a feminist-informed vision for family life

education (Allen & Baber, 1992; Walker et al.); the concern for

’’what is taught, how it is taught, and whom is taught’’

(MacDermid, Jurich, Myers-Walls, & Pelo, 1992, p. 31, empha-

sis in original); the feminist processes of reflexivity and self-

disclosure as teaching tools (Allen, 1995; Allen & Farnsworth,

1993); the importance of including race and class diversity with

gender when teaching about contemporary families (Walker,

1993); decentering the instructor (Marks, 1995); and the value

of using a postmodern feminist approach as a theoretical base

from which to teach (Baber & Murray, 2001).

The goals of feminist teaching have been described by sev-

eral scholars. They include (a) fully incorporating women into

classrooms (Allen, 1988); (b) promoting equality and respect for

all people and families (Allen & Baber, 1992); (c) involving and

challenging students in the learning process so that they assume

responsibility for their own learning (Allen, Floyd-Thomas, &

Gillman, 2001; Walker, 1996); and (d) empowering students to

develop understandings and actions that benefit themselves, their

families, and others (Baber & Murray, 2001; MacDermid et al.,

1992). Feminist teachers assume that teaching is a value-laden

activity; that content and process are inseparably connected; that

teaching must be relevant to students’ lives; that oppression ex-

ists; that critique of the social system is paramount in under-

standing individual lives, and personal experience is key in the

development of this critique and in the promotion of social jus-

tice; and that action toward changing unjust situations and insti-

tutions must follow understanding (Allen, 1988; Allen & Baber;

Allen et al.; MacDermid et al.).

Individual accounts about teaching offer valuable direction

to those interested in anchoring their teaching in a feminist the-

*An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Annual Meeting of the

National Council on Family Relations, Irvine, CA, 1999. This research was partially funded

by the New Faculty Research Grant, Western Michigan University. The authors thank the

participants for their time and candor; Judy Myers-Wallsfor comments on the initial analysis;

Ada Sinacore for collaboration in the design and data collection; Sarah Brawer for interview

scheduling and transcribing; Jodi Herztog for transcribing and assistance with early coding;

and Monica Boll for extensive transcription work.

**Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, 3028 Kohrman Hall, WesternMich-

igan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008 (blaisure@wmich.edu).

Key Words: family science, feminism, pedagogy, teaching.

(Family Relations, 2003, 52, 22–32)

oretical foundation. However, to date no study on feminist ped-

agogy has explored teaching in family science. For example,

family science was not represented in Maher and Tetreault’s

(1994) ethnographic study of 17 feminist teachers from nine dis-

ciplines or in Deats and Lenker’s (1994) edited book on gender

and academe. Additionally, disseminating information on teach-

ing techniques and assessing their effectiveness remain important

tasks for family science (Sollie & Kaetz, 1992) and academe in

general (Stage, Muller, Kinzie, & Simmons, 1998).

To further feminist praxis and knowledge about teaching,

the present study explored how feminist family science teachers

conceptualize teaching, translate theory into classroom practice,

and handle challenging situations. It complements and extends

the individual accounts of feminist teaching by offering empir-

ical support to the literature. This project accompanied the first

author throughout the majority of her junior faculty status and a

transition through tenure and the second author through her tran-

sition from a graduate student to an adjunct faculty member in

women studies. It served as a course in pedagogy and influenced

our teaching by providing practical classroom ideas and models

of reflexive feminist practitioners.

Methods

This study of teaching is for teachers who, like ourselves,

wish to learn more about how feminist teaching is accomplished

in the everyday world of higher education (Thompson, 1992).

The goal was to produce ‘‘a realist tale’’ that assumed a know-

able and empirical world while acknowledging the partiality and

ambiguity of any construction of it (Lather, 1991, p. 128).

Data Collection

Purposive sampling guided selection of participants (Gilgun,

Daly, & Handel, 1992) who were recruited through announce-

ments at professional meetings and through a snowball approach

(Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). Selection criteria included self-iden-

tification as a feminist teacher and part-time or full-time status

as a faculty member in a family-related discipline (e.g., family

studies, family sociology, and family therapy) at a college or

university. Participants were considered expert informants who

could provide insight into the practice of feminist teaching.

The first author interviewed 21 participants, and a counsel-

ing psychology colleague interviewed an additional four family

science teachers. Telephone interviews, lasting approximately 1

hour, were completed in 1995 (n519), 1996 (n54), and 1999

(n52). Although data collection lacked face-to-face contact,

the reliance on the telephone allowed for inclusion of faculty