The future of Chinese feminist pedagogy for global citizenship education
Author: Ziyue Sun
Introduction
The topic of the essay is feminist pedagogy and its implementation in the Chinese educational system. In the author’s educational beliefs, feminist pedagogy emphasizes all individuals' experiences and perspectives, including but not limited to diverse gender groups. To explain, all individuals' real and unique life experiences are empowered and included (Bourn, 2020; Brown, 2010; Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). In feminist pedagogy, educators encourage students to share their truths, make their choices, and believe in their intuition, especially those voices that are marginalized, oppressed, and silenced (Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). The Chinese educational system needs feminist pedagogy; however, the implementation is proposed to consider the Chinese local context and the discourse of gender. The introduction will first use one scenario and two interposed narrations to explain why this topic is important, analyzing it with course literature. Secondly, the topic is justified as generally important by connecting it with the content of global citizenship education. Then, I will introduce how the course "Education and Global Justice" covered the topic and what has been missed.
My stories
On an afternoon in May 2023, I walked to the most famous cherry blossom park in Helsinki, Finland. The air was very fresh, and there were many visitors. I put on my earphones and turned on my podcast while I was sightseeing. The podcast was discussing Laura S. Brown’s book, "The Feminist Therapy." It explored how women are symbolized, objectified, and stereotyped in a patriarchal society, with everyone often taking these patriarchal perspectives for granted. Laura (2010) re-examined the concept of power and criticized how certified psychotherapists lack the ability to discuss issues attributed to power structures and patriarchy.
The content of the podcast reminded me of two experiences. The first one is about my grandmother. In my home, my grandmother plays the role of the typical Chinese dedicated woman, willing to sacrifice her own time and physical energy for the whole family. However, one of her highly repeated sayings is, “You all have a surname of Sun, only I have a surname of Song. You belong to one family, but I am the outsider.” [In Chinese culture, women keep their surname after they get married.] While she others herself in her own narration, she receives responses like, “That is your overthinking, and we do not feel the same way.” The book "Woman and Madness" (Chesler, 2005, as cited in Laura, 2010) talks about females' emotions being neglected. Specifically, a woman's feelings could be denied or undervalued if they do not align with the mainstream (Chesler, 2005). During that time, none of our family members had the ability to listen, understand, and empower voices that were not equivalent to ours, regardless of gender.
The second experience involves my study in Australian and Finnish higher education contexts. During communication in international groups, I intended to explain cultural concepts and easily noticeable differences produced under the globalized gaze while devaluing my real experiences. For example, in our group presentation we discussed gender issues in the Chinese educational context. I ingratiated the Western mainstream ontology, agreeing that girls in China are also labeled as not good in mathematics. However, I unconsciously neglected the fact that all of my distinctive math teachers and principals were female, and they used encouraging strategies for everyone equally. These frequently occurring dialogues without proper self-reflection make my contradictory perception toward my own identity grow. On the one hand, I find that my biological and social status cannot bring me positive feedback in front of Western people and Western males. On the other hand, I believe my own story can be recognized to some extent, but I don’t have enough knowledge to support and empower myself.
These two stories make me start thinking about the future of Chinese feminist education. The purpose is to nurture the next generation's ability to recognize, understand, and value all gender groups' right to express themselves, fostering identity confidence when encountering transnational environments. The essay will discuss how feminist pedagogy is implemented worldwide, addressing the shortages and alternative strategies. It will then focus on the adaptation to the complex structural relationships and systems in China.
Justification with course literature and content
This topic is important in general. Andreotti (2006) and Holmes et al. (2021) have helped me further reflect on the connection between feminist pedagogy and critical global citizenship education. Firstly, Andreotti (2006) discusses how transnational concerns from dominant groups to the periphery are based on sympathy, pity, and benevolence rather than cause and effect. In places lacking feminist education, concerns toward diverse gender groups are filled with assumed compassion, even in daily interactions, similar to the responses from all of my family members to my grandmother. Moreover, Andreotti (2006) points out the imbalance of being global, where a part of the population is globalizing their power while others are being globalized (Andreotti, 2006). To connect, when pursuing gender equality under a fixed patriarchy, men have the power to impose their worldviews on women, and women accept these views even though they neglect the recognition and protection of women's needs, personality, and rights (Brown, 2010; Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). For example, the image of feminism still sets a perfect body size as one standard (Holmes et al., 2021), impacting the process of pursuing the oppressed woman’s physical and emotional health. In this case, feminist pedagogy is seen as a critical approach to global citizenship education.
The course "Education and Global Justice" discussed the main educational ideas for conducting any pedagogy for justice. For example, it covered the concept of power, the use of language when discussing sensitive issues in the classroom (Suhonen, 2023), misinformation (Gafinen, 2023), etc. These contents could be generalized to support analyzing and extending discussions on all unjust issues. However, the course missed talking about the different attitudes for facing differences among people with diverse backgrounds. For instance, the course had invited guests from different cultural backgrounds, but an open and safe discussion for studying different attitudes when various groups of people face and treat differences was absent. As a complement, Prasanna (2017) explained the five different attitudes that individuals or groups may adopt for treating differences in educational settings. They include learning from differences, embracing differences, ignoring differences, resisting differences, and reconstructing differences. The subject will select one attitude according to the context, with or without consciousness. The latter part of the essay will analyze the Chinese attitude towards treating gender differences when feminist pedagogy is implemented in Chinese education.
As a preview of the body part, it will explore how feminist pedagogy travels from the West to the East with grounded literature support. Firstly, the theoretical guidance and practical steps of feminist pedagogy will be outlined. Secondly, two insufficiencies of the original feminist pedagogy will be described and analyzed. Alternative strategies and complementary pedagogy will be introduced for adaptation, with grounded literature supporting each step. Third, the current behaviors of Chinese females when encountering transnational environments will be described with the support of literature and the author's own experience. This will further justify the need to integrate feminist pedagogy into the Chinese educational system. Fourth, the discourse on social gender issues in China will be analyzed, and suggestions will be given for adapting feminist pedagogy within the Chinese educational system.
Feminist pedagogy, existed shortage and the solutions
Feminist pedagogy is grounded in feminist theory, advocating egalitarian principles of cooperation and collaboration rather than competition and domination, envisioning students as active participants (Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). It includes four steps in theoretical guidance: voice, mastery, positionality, and authority (Brown, 2010; Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). Voice arouses students' epistemology through their own voices, experiences, and beliefs (Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). Mastery involves the collaborative and interactive construction of knowledge within the study community (Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). Students can then use multiple forms and unique positionality to construct their knowledge, with plural epistemologies supported and included by the educator (Laura, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). Finally, feminist pedagogy acknowledges that diverse interpretations of knowledge will disperse authority (Laura, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). In a classroom applying feminist pedagogy, the physical atmosphere, teacher's behavior, and students' level of engagement and maintenance of a safe space all affect the outcome of a class (Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). In this case, the responsibility for high-quality education is shared between the teachers and the students.
Feminist pedagogy and Interworldview education
According to the conceptual guidance from Tedesco-Schneck's article (2018), feminist pedagogy empowers individuals but does not adequately consider the harmony of the community. Specifically, it focuses on the stories of a single minority group at one time but misses communication either among minority groups or between minority and majority groups (Andreotti, 2006; Bourn, 2020; Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017). Importantly, as a community-based country with a huge population, China is obliged to ensure multi-directional respect among different groups (Wang, 2018). Rautionmaa and Kallioniemi (2017) suggest that as mutual understanding and the ability to understand differences increase, mutual respect will also increase. The ideas from interworldview education (Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017) complement this shortcoming of feminist pedagogy (Magnet & Diamond, 2010; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018). Interworldview education emphasizes shared agreements and common values in human communication. In an interworldview classroom, students fully participate in mutual, open, and safe worldview exchange, bringing reflections on course experiences to interact with the real world. Learning happens through ongoing interaction and self-reflection (Bourn, 2020; Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017). The purpose of interworld is firstly to obtain deep knowledge of oneself and appreciate one's inner balance status. Secondly, students gain adequate literacy to face differences and live with different attitudes towards treating differences (Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017). Importantly, interworldview education can help students understand how to obtain real knowledge about others and maintain friendly relationships, rather than assuming a constructed image as the truth (Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017). The ideas from interworldview education are seen as a complement to feminist pedagogy for the future of feminist education in China.
Feminist pedagogy and feminist therapy
Feminist pedagogy may evoke students' emotions, a fact that is sometimes criticized (Magnet & Diamond, 2010). This paragraph will analyze the reasons behind such criticism and discuss possible adaptations and strategies for implementation. When an entire class addresses differences among gender groups and questions the unjust power structure, students might find themselves immersed in grief, anger, and sadness (Magnet & Diamond, 2010). Feminist pedagogy attributes individual pain to a larger systematic background of inequality, making epistemologically awakened students realize the helplessness of fighting back (Magnet & Diamond, 2010). To adjust to this situation, the teacher could acknowledge the need to face uncertainty and complexity as the first step (Suhonen, 2023). Since the emotions are triggered by uncertain information from the world, a step of guiding students to identify misinformation can be added to the course design (Gafinen, 2023; Suhonen, 2023). Students will learn how to trace the authenticity, relevance, and causality of a piece of information, distinguishing whether the emotion is caused by the real world or a constructed image (Gafinen, 2023). Importantly, cross-disciplinary collaboration can occur between educators and feminist psychotherapists. The feminist psychotherapist can identify the differences between individual trauma and collective trauma, providing specialized treatment (Magnet & Diamond, 2010).
When female start traveling
Researchers often assert that females tend to simplify their self-identity and interpersonal knowledge when entering a transnational environment (Andreotti, 2006; Bourn, 2020; Spakowski, 2011). This paragraph will use my personal experience to support the analysis of the reasons behind it and consider the promotion of feminist education in China as a solution. According to research, females in a transnational environment tend to align with universally approved worldviews or stand with widely recognized peripheral statuses to stabilize troubling relationships (Andreotti, 2006; Spakowski, 2011). As a female international student, I often find it challenging to introduce myself with limited words. I worry that descriptive nouns may take on different meanings in various contexts and evoke false emotions imagined by listeners. However, during one activity in a class, I realized I have ample space for expression, and those expressions are accepted, understood, and valued. Many international students physically move from one nation to another, but their mental states are still left in the previous box (Wang, 2018). Concerning the future of Chinese feminist education, students are encouraged to appreciate themselves and understand that appropriate expressions can be accepted and valued by others. Importantly, the actions of listening and expressing themselves are the keys to constructing a community that respects differences (Andreotti, 2006; Bourn, 2020; Tedesco-Schneck, 2018).
When feminist pedagogy start travelling
What will happen when the above-adjusted feminist pedagogies and complemented strategies are implemented in the Chinese context? This paragraph will discuss two situations with literature support. Firstly, the gender issue is treated with a different attitude by the Chinese public than in Western societies. Specifically, the Chinese perception of gender denies conflating social properties with the biological properties of gender (Spakowski, 2011). The Chinese view social roles as limiting comprehensive gender identity (Spakowski, 2011) and treat them as a separate discipline. The harmonious development of people with different genders [liangxing de hexie fazhan] is the discipline that deals with all social issues related to gender (Spakowski, 2011). Chinese females' attitudes towards gender differences involve learning and embracing differences (Spakowski, 2011; Prasanna, 2017) through concern for males. These attitudes are selected because they prioritize the harmonious community (Spakowski, 2011; Wang, 2018). It is important to note that the research does not mention if the concern towards males is based on males' own narration or a single-direction judgment made from female to male (Andreotti, 2006). This underscores the necessity of involving inter-worldview education (Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017) as a complement to feminist pedagogy in the Chinese educational context.
Next, plurality exists in Chinese gender-related discourse due to the vast landscape and massive population (Spakowski, 2011; Wang, 2018). There are "three female voices" coexisting in China, including discourse generated from the community, discourse generated from scholarship, and discourse generated from commercial media (Spakowski, 2011). Feminist pedagogy in China would help students disregard the third discourse because it is influenced by capitalism (Spakowski, 2011). According to the above discussion, the discourse from commercial media is one of the sources of misinformation (Gafinen, 2023). Then, feminist pedagogy may facilitate the inclusion between the first two discourses. The community and scholarship may mutually encourage and affect the next generation (Spakowski, 2011).
Conclusion:
The essay commences by justifying feminist pedagogy as a critical approach for future global citizenship education, drawing on the author's personal stories and course literature. Throughout the essay, readers can firstly learn the extensive definition of feminist pedagogy, emphasizing its empowerment of all socially marginalized individuals. The essay then explores the flexible implementation of feminist pedagogy, adapting to real-world situations and country-specific contexts. In the body of the essay, the theoretical guidance of feminist pedagogy is introduced. Two deficiencies encountered in its implementation, as recorded by research, are analyzed. The author provides alternative suggestions from educational literature for each deficiency, considering the renovated feminist pedagogy as a comprehensive educational practice. Beyond focusing solely on feminist pedagogy, the essay targets international female students from China as the educational subjects, combining comprehensive feminist pedagogical practices with Chinese culture.
Overall, the essay empowers individuals to pursue gender equality and foster a harmonious and pluralized society through the lens of educational sciences. As the author, the most important lesson I have learned is the significance of utilizing research results and reasoning to address gender inequality issues, rather than relying solely on emotions. Furthermore, I gained insights into how feminist pedagogy, originally a Western concept, can be adapted and applied in a different cultural context. While recognizing the shortcomings of the original pedagogy, I understand the importance of incorporating discourse from mobile contexts to enhance its applicability. This essay has equipped me with the skills to integrate ideas from various pedagogical theories to develop contextual practices. The writing process has instilled confidence in me to design pedagogies for global citizenship education in my future teaching. I have practiced considering and supporting peripheral voices through research-based methods.
References:
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Ziyue is a second-year student in the master's program of Changing Education at the University of Helsinki. She previously studied and worked as an early childhood teacher in China, Australia, and Canada. Ziyue is interested in inclusive education and philosophy. Currently, she is working on her thesis under the topic of "Doubting as a mental behavior in a cross-paradigm learning environment" and is volunteering in the educational sector of UN Youth in Finland. The current work progress gives her opportunities to write, communicate, and implement many of her creative ideas related to her field. Ziyue enjoys challenging herself and solving difficult problems. When she is not working, she likes to role-play, engage in strategic sports, meet different types of beings, and immerse herself in literature.
Key Words: Feminist pedagogy, Chinese educational system, Global citizenship education