Research On Teaching Democracy In Light Of Feminism

Teaching Democracy is not a new topic. However, up till now, non-democratic teaching is still a ubiquitous phenomenon, which has already become a major obstacle for promoting teaching quality. Therefore, deeper investigation into the issue of teaching democracy is crucial to the development of both students and schools. This paper, based on the liberal feminism, looks into to the problem of teaching democracy. By analyzing the influence of feminism on teaching and teaching democracy, and focusing on the interplay of feminism and democratic teaching, we established a framework of teaching democracy from the feminist viewpoint. In addition, considering the status quo and origins of teaching democracy, we proposed ways and strategies of realize teaching democracy.This dissertation is divided into seven parts:Part One:Introduction. Part one explicates the rationale of the present study. It gives a brief analysis on the existing studies, states the objectives and significance of the present study, and also explains the major thoughts, contents and approaches of our study.Part Two:we firstly give a summary on the teaching democracy in general. It is considered that generally, teaching democracy refers to the teaching principles in which teachers acknowledge the subjective status of students in teaching and see that students take the initiatives in learning behaviors, and therefore, teachers would be concerned about arousing students' initiatives and maximize learning outcomes in democratic interaction. This process bears4features, which are subjectivity, participation, equality and variability. We elaborated the manifestation of teaching democracy in teaching objectives, teacher-student relationships, teaching approaches and classroom atmosphere.Part Three:A historical review on the teaching democracy at home and abroad. In this part, We then give a historical review on the teaching democracy at home and abroad. Under the influence of modern critical pedagogy, researchers abroad do not just only focus on external systems, but rather, they go deeper into the inequality and endeavor to reveal the fact and make changes. This inspires us that we should adopt a critical and emancipatory viewpoint to rethink about teaching democracy and how to realize that. In China, thoughts of teaching democracy are still in its infancy, and now it is developing but no systematic theoretical framework has been established. Some issues has been explored, such as the equality in education, the spread of education, democratic student-teacher relationship, democracy in teaching approaches, and individualized education. Nonetheless, it lacks deep-seated reasons on these phenomena, which prevents us from solving non-democratic problems in teaching practices. Based on the emphasis on students' subjectivity in the present basic education curriculum reform, the issues of teaching democracy will be a new growing point for teaching theories.Part Four:In order to understand the status quo of teaching democracy, the present study conducted a questionnaire interview with150teachers and250students. Questionnaires for teachers and students are biased towards different aspects. In total, there are30questions in the questionnaires, which were designed to study attitudes and behaviors in teaching respectively. Results show that students hope to get respectful and equal treatment, and expect for teaching democracy; however, there are still non-democratic phenomena which limited teaching effectiveness and teaching positive function. That aside, there is still misunderstanding in teaching democracy by both students and teachers, who considers teaching democracy as merely a type of non-essential teaching approach. They have not realized the significance of teaching democracy for helping vulnerable group in learning and for promoting equal and self-development, nor have they seen the importance of teaching democracy in cultivating democratic citizenship. Teachers have been the major determinant in deciding teachers' power, students' participation in teaching activities, establishment of student-teacher relationships, and also teaching activities. Therefore, teaching democracy is easily dissimilated into teacher-bestowed "democracy", which is virtually not really democracy. Non-democratic teaching has its root in culture, social system, ideation and diathesis. From the perspective of culture, values of social hierarchy and dominant ideology have a role to play. From the viewpoint of social system, there has been non-democracy in the formation, formulation and execution of the system. Ideas on society-departmentalism, knowledge-oriented teaching practice and misunderstandings of teaching processes also play a part. Finally, there are limitations in teacher's theoretical knowledge, teaching ability, and teaching approaches.Part Five:analyzed connotations of feminism, the three main waves, and major schools of feminism. There are various schools of feminism, but all of them have a common pursuit, that is, to focus on the gender differences and equality, and to achieve equity and development of women. Feminism has a similar purpose to teaching democracy, that is, to help vulnerable groups get out of disadvantageous situations and to promote their development. For this reason, we proposed a key conception for the present study:Emancipatory Teaching Democracy, which is defined as "a teaching principle by which teachers liberate themselves and students in both ideology and behavior in order to construct a student-teacher learning community, in which individual experiences of each member would be respected and equal dialogues could be conducted, and therefore students' understanding of knowledge and their competence could be promoted." Specifically, this could be manifested in the following aspects. Concerning the contents of teaching, there are no longer absolutely right or wrong answers, but only different individual experiences. Regardless of race, gender and social class, individuals all have unique and special experiences. By sharing their experiences, every student will be equally valued. They are emotionally acknowledged, cognitively promoted. In the teaching methods, teachers and students are free to have dialogues and negotiations.Part Six:Ways to achieve emancipatory teaching democracy. In order to realize the emancipatroy teaching democracy, we should transfer the liberation of thoughts and teaching practice of teacher and students, and advocate the freedom of human nature. Firstly, starting from the liberation of thought, traditional views on subjectivity, equality, liberty, morality and authority should be changed. Then, behaviors of teachers and students in teaching practices should be freed. Finally, teaching purposes should be elevated by freeing the human nature. The truth of human nature should be pursued:from acclimatization to freedom (kindness of human); from one-sidedness to harmony (beauty of human); from restraint to freedom. The three processes go forward one by one. Freedom of thought is the prerequisite, freedom in teaching practices is the guarantee, and freedom of human nature is the ultimate goal.Part Seven:proposes the strategies to realize emancipatory teaching democracy. In this part, we consider that a feminist view of teaching democracy should lay emphasis on the development of students and the active participation of students in teaching activities. Through emancipating students, their subjective status will be promoted and thus get rid of non-democracy in teaching. From a practical perspective, we should rethink about several aspects in teaching practices, and provide effective strategies for teachers. Those strategies are:(a) to set teaching objectives based on the emancipation of students;(b) to interpret teaching materials based on the criticism of existing knowledge;(c) to choose teaching approaches based on democracy;(d) to manage classes based on an establishment of student-teacher community; and (e) to make teaching evaluation based on an relational thinking.The present study has brought forward several innovations. First, studying teaching democracy in the framework of feminism is a new research perspective. In the past literature, most studies have discussed about teaching democracy only from the perspective of teachers; while few have been concerned about the subjective status and rights of students. In addition, most of the studies have used gender analysis model or equal analysis model, but there are barely any studies which have employed the liberation analysis model. Second, the research content is novel. Based on amounting evidence in the past literature and theoretical reasoning, it is well-justified that feminism aligns well with the key points in the present study. They have a lot in common. Both of them focus on the vulnerable group. Both of them stress on development with the help of freedom which contains the freedom of ideas, behaviors, and human nature. Thirdly, we have proposed fresh viewpoints in the present study. In the framework of feminist liberation, teaching democracy is no longer a practice that teacher adopt so-called "democracy" in treating students. But rather, it should refer to the fact that teachers help students develop the consciousness to free themselves and to actively strive for freedom, and thus, the situation will be changed from "giving" to "freeing" and finally promote equality and free development of students.