Introduction—Teaching in the Gaps: Authority, Ideology, and Identity

by Meredith Miller, Guest Editor


Discussions of feminist pedagogy betray a discomfort with authority that ultimately stems from the very gendered constructions from which we seek to free ourselves. We are aware that our students have been culturally silenced, often violently, and we seek to create an atmosphere in which they can regain the power to speak and be heard. Yet our reactions to abuses of cultural and institutional power have caused us to throw out the pedagogical baby with the bathwater. We cannot, in fact, act as mere facilitators in discussions around the most explosive and potentially damaging realities of our culture. Cynthia Hogue, Kim Parker, and Meredith Miller have discussed classroom situations in which white female and male students felt free and empowered to express violently racist and misogynist sentiments in response to issues raised by teachers who did not exercise their authority by establishing rules of classroom conduct at the outset. Some students were then subjected to the worst forms of discursive violence. The authors suggest that the exercise of feminist teacher authority is a crucial component of our very respect and caring for our students.