Feminist approaches to teaching about VAW. Facilitating empowerment through a critique of dominant knowledges

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-10-2017-0221
• Date: 20 May 2019
• Pages: 430-446
• Published date: 20 May 2019
• Author: Tara Samantha Styles-Lightowlers
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour

Feminist approaches to teaching

about VAW

Facilitating empowerment through a critique

of dominant knowledges

Tara Samantha Styles-Lightowlers

Lancashire Law School, University of Central Lancashire,

Preston, UK

Abstract

Purpose –Feminism has provided a sustained challenge to the widespread occurrence of violence against

women (VAW). Yet despite the tremendous efforts of feminist activists and academics, it continues to be one

of the most tolerated crimes in the world. This paper offers an account of the author’s experiences teaching

about VAW in higher education (HE) and an overview of how specific approaches to teaching this subject can

provide an empowering space for students who have experienced such violence. The paper aims to discuss

these issues.

Design/methodology/approach –Drawing upon the works of feminists committed to ending VAW,

transformative education as envisioned by Paulo Freire and Foucault’s work on knowledge and power, the

author proposes a feminist informed teaching practice that facilitates empowerment through: giving voice to

women who have experienced violence; exploring and promoting the transformative potential of education

and; challenging traditional and dominant forms of knowing.

Findings –A recognition of the social, historical and political context in which violence occurs, and how

traditional knowledge about it is accepted, is vital in empowering women who have experienced violence to

challenge dominant discourses that do not fit with their own perceived reality.

Originality/value –Whilst there is currently a growing interest in the barriers to HE participation, the

author seeks to explore the ways in which some of the barriers can be addressed that students may face

whilst on HE courses, particularly in relation to self-awareness, empowerment and healing.

Keywords Foucault, Feminism,Empowerment, Violence against women,Freire, Transformative education

Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction

This paper is based on the rationale behind my decision to do a Professional Doctorate in

Education (Ed.Doc). The paper does not focus primarily on the study, which is still in its

infancy. Rather it sets out my journey towards this point through an exploration of my own

teaching position and the link between my research and practice. It maps out my journey as

a woman and a survivor who teaches about violence against women (VAW) in a university

setting and attempts to draw together the various political, theoretical and methodological

approaches that inform both my teaching practice and the related study I intend to do.

I begin with an autobiographical account of my experiences teaching on a module that

explores VAW and then offer an overview of the literature, theories and methodologies that

inform my teaching practice. By mapping out my own journey, I do not offer a method of

how to teach VAW from a feminist perspective as such, but instead explore the

complexities, and sometimes contradictions, of bringing the self into the classroom. This is

particularly important when the subject being taught relates directly to the real lives of both

students and teachers. The paper highlights a need for the empirical work that I intend to

do, involving interviews with students, and offers an account my own experiences and

understandings as a woman, survivor and teacher so these can be explored further and in

connection with the experiences, and understandings, of women students who have

experienced violence. The works of Paulo Freire and bell hooks offer a framework for my

teaching practice, whilst the works of Michel Foucault and Adrian Howe are useful tools for

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 4, 2019

pp. 430-446

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-10-2017-0221

Received 7 August 2017

Revised 22 October 2017

25 February 2018

26 July 2018

22 October 2018

Accepted 24 October 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

430

EDI

38,4

building a critique of power and knowledge in relation to VAW, and for creating meaningful

spaces where VAW can be explored and challenged by those who are directly affected

by such violence.

The Ed.Doc is a post-graduate taught course which incorporates monthly classes with

assessments and a larger research project that has an explicit focus on my teaching practice.

The study I am doing involves interviews and focus groups with women students that I

have taught on a module on VAW. The questions will centre around the women’s journey

into higher education (HE); their experiences of the module I taught and; their own

experiences and understandings of VAW and gender oppression. A deeply reflexive

approach will be required because my research is intentionally partial. It is built upon a

judgement about behaviour and a recognition of the harms caused by that behaviour.

I proceed from a solid assertion that VAW is wrong. Using Foucault’s words, I am reacting

to that which is intolerable. It would be pointless to try and claim that I will try to be as

objective as possible and that I will not approach the research with any pre-existing

assumptions. It would also be a blatant lie. Declaring my starting position (and one which I

feel pretty certain will not change in the near future) does not make my research invalid, it

gives it purpose. But it is not enough to simply state my position. Acknowledging our

subject positions makes research much harder as it requires a constant interrogation of

our motivations, a continual reflection and vigorous self-critique. Declaring that I am a

woman who has experienced multiple forms of violence including child sexual assault, rape

and serious physical assault does not automatically qualify me to speak about or for all

victims and survivors of VAW but it does offer a transparency. It provides the context

for my research project. However, it would be far too simplistic to assume that it is

my experiences of violence that have prompted me to do this particular research. Personal

experience alone is not enough. It is important to engage with such experience and

interrogate the self in relation to others. My experience of teaching about VAW and having

other women disclose their own experiences have been some motivation. It is my

engagement with students that has prompted to ask questions about VAW in relation to

HE. It would be difficult to claim that my research, and motivation for doing it, are not

shaped by profound emotions: anger, fear, pain, sorrow, hope, a sense of solidarity and

sisterhood. I want to explore the impact of these emotions on teaching and learning about

VAW and the part they play in challenging violence and oppression.

Staring points: locating the self

I came to HE myself as a single mother and a survivor of multiple forms of violence.

My choice of degree was not determined by any particular interest in the subject. The degree

was running for the first time. High A-level grades were not needed and it was close enough

to where I was living at the time, with a one-year-old son, for me to commute. For the first

two years of my degree I worked as hard as I could with no real passion for the subject. I had

bought into the neoliberal claim that you can get anywhere you want in life if you just work

hard. I was driven by the need to get a good degree in order to get a good job and make a

better life for my son and I. It was a soul destroying experience, listening to “experts”and

reading journal articles that explained people like me in a way that was alien and felt wrong.

I found myself thinking that I was wrong and that I had to make myself better. I felt a need

to distance myself from who I was in order to become one of these dispassionate experts.

In my third year, a new module, called “Sex, Violence and Crime”was introduced, and it

was going to be taught by a Professor from Australia. We were told that this Professor was

a feminist. I was excited. The module had a huge impact on my life –going far beyond the

grades that I achieved. It was a very difficult module but it was also liberating and

exhilarating. After feeling lost and wandering, suddenly I found a lecturer and a whole

series of readings that seemed to speak directly to me. The lecturer did not keep herself

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Feminist

approaches to

teaching about

VAW