"I continued to wallow in liberalism and was blinded to the power differences..." Barbara Omolade
At the beginning of the 1999-2000 academic year I attempted to implement a pedagogy that espoused equality in the classroom and a fair way of teaching that avoided racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism etc. In retrospect I realize that my views on equality in the classroom encompassed a liberal feminist agenda in which I believed all students could have "equal access to social benefits" (Kenway 1992, 135). However, various experiences throughout this year have led me to believe that this was a naive point of view. In this article I outline the premises that had informed my intended classroom environment of equality and respect, illustrate how power relations are at play in the classroom, and indicate some of the conclusions I've made regarding the issue of power relations in the classroom.
In attempting to create an environment of equality between myself and my students, and each other, I realize, in retrospect, that it was an oversight on my part to believe that mine was the power to give away. At the start of the academic year I made the following promise (among others) to my students in writing:
I would like to create an environment of equality in the classroom. This means that no one person (including myself) is more valuable than the other when it comes to learning and teaching. Each individual has strengths that will contribute to our learning in the classroom. I am merely a facilitator interested in utilizing your expertise to help the entire class learn.
I thought that I could renounce my position of authority in the classroom, however I have since learned that "power is a relation not a possession or capacity" (Orner 1992: 82, drawing from Foucault). I had ignored the fact that power is a part of the very structure of the student/teacher relationship and the institution that supports it. Through my teaching experiences I have come to recognize that there is a fine balance between using and relinquishing authority in the classroom and in my relationship with students.
One issue at the core of feminist pedagogy in relation to power is, "the contradictions that emerge between students and instructor around their similar and disparate experiences of race, gender and class" (Omolade 1987, 35). By not questioning power issues in the classroom and my relationship with my students, and suggesting that I was equal to my students, I had ignored my own identity politics. Being a young, thin, athletic, white, heterosexual woman from a middle class background I experience certain privileges and oppressions everyday. In the context of the classroom my privilege is once again heightened by the very fact that I hold a position of power, that of the teacher! To denounce that position with the goal of equality, I ignored not only my own experience and identity, but also the education and training that has allowed me to hold such a position in the first place.
Attempts to bestow our students with power should not go unquestioned, nor should our students' voices be uncritically accepted. Mimi Orner raises important issues concerning the concept of a powerful student voice, as she feels that it: "ignores authority figures in the classroom such as teachers; assumes an egalitarian environment where power is shared by all; and overlooks the power of silence" (Orner 1992: 84). Reflecting on this, I realize that I can not create an egalitarian environment in my classroom by the very fact that I am the teacher, an authority figure:
The teacher [in the institutionally imposed authority role] must give grades, is evaluated by administrators and colleagues in terms of expertise in a body of knowledge, and is expected to take responsibility for meeting the goals of an academic course as it is understood within the wider university. (Weiler 1995, 32).
At the end of the day, it is my marking that endorses or rejects the validity and quality of the students' work.
While power has become a dirty word in pedagogical circles, Weiler suggests that "the need for women to claim authority in a society that denies it to them" is crucial (Weiler 1995, 33). She goes on to state that "...this use of authority will lead to positive social change only if those teachers are working also to empower students in a Freirean sense" (Weiler 1995, 33). In other words, it is possible to use my privilege to empower my students.
The balancing act between relinquishing and reclaiming power has been a constant personal struggle in my own classroom as has defining my role as facilitator and my responsibilities to my students. I will use one experience that took place in my class this year to illustrate my struggles with the issue of authority in my classroom. I had asked a male student to instruct the class on putting colour on a web page. However, his explanation was much more scientific than I had anticipated, and as his instructions became increasingly mathematical, the presentation became a three-way discussion of the finer technical points of colour between three male students and excluded the participation of my female students. In relinquishing my own power I had allowed another form of power that privileged technical and objective ways of knowing to exist in my classroom. I was furious and I felt as though the space of shared power I naively thought I had created had been violated. In retrospect I recognize that this could have been a moment for me to reclaim my authority and question this student on his pedagogical methodology. However, I did not take the opportunity to effectively regain control of the situation but merely joked with my students that this was much more than they needed to know. By responding in this manner, I believe I diminished my status as an 'expert' while sending a message that the controlling behaviour of this student and his colleagues was acceptable.
The extent of validation of violence among boys is shocking in classrooms today. And the downplaying of this aggression in reasoned argument is itself an interesting transformation of power. Here, it is the knower who can win and apparently topple the power of the teacher, through argument. Disciplining becomes knowing (Walkerdine 1992, 21).
In trying to eliminate oppression in the classroom by relinquishing some of my control, in effect I allowed other forms of domination to exist. I did not revert to structures of dominance by reclaiming my power, but perhaps even worse I allowed a more common form of male oppression and exclusion to take place in my classroom.
Power is not a monolithic evil, but can be a tool that might effectively eliminate forms of oppression that we can not allow to exist in the classroom. Further, as teaching assistants it is crucial to remember that power inequality in the classroom should not only be viewed from the perspective of the teacher, but in the relationship between students and teachers together. By carefully negotiating the issues and rules around power and equity in their classroom, teaching assistants can effectively create and manage a learning environment that is favourable and fair to all people in the classroom.
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Bibliography:
Kenway, Jane and Helen Modra. "Feminist Pedagogy and Emancipatory Possibilities." In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy. Ed. Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, 138-166. New York: Rutledge, 1992.
Omolade, Barbara. "A Black Feminist Pedagogy" Women's Studies Quarterly XV: 3&4(Fall/Winter 1987): 32-39.
Orner, Mimi. "Interrupting the Calls for Student Voice in Liberatory Education: A Feminist Postructuralist Perspective" In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy. Ed. Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, 74-90. New York: Rutledge, 1992.
Walkerdine, Valerie. "Progressive Pedagogy and Political Struggle" In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy. Ed. Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, 15-25. New York: Rutledge, 1992.
Weiler, Katherine. "Freire and Feminist Pedagogy of Difference" In Debates and Issues in Feminist Research and Pedagogy. Ed. Janet Holland, Maud Blair, with Sue Sheldon, 23-44. Clevedon: The Open University, 1995.