Feminist Pedagogy and Social Justice in Higher Education

Feminist pedagogy in higher education foregrounds the experiences and voices of those traditionally marginalised, emphasising collaborative learning, critical reflexivity and an ethic of care. It interrogates power relations within curricula and classroom dynamics, seeking to transform both knowledge production and institutional cultures. By integrating social justice principles, courses become sites for addressing systemic inequalities related to gender, race, class and other intersecting identities. This approach encourages students and educators to co-construct curricula, challenge normative hierarchies and cultivate skills in empathetic communication and collective action. Globally, feminist pedagogies have informed inclusive teaching strategies, professional development programmes and policies aimed at reducing attainment gaps and fostering equitable learning environments. Practical applications range from redesigning assessment methods to embedding community engagement projects that link academic study with social justice advocacy. As universities respond to calls for decolonisation, anti-racism and wellbeing, feminist pedagogical frameworks offer rigorous yet accessible pathways to rethinking the purpose and practice of higher education.

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Feminist Pedagogy and Social Justice in Higher Education publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in feminist pedagogy and social justice in higher education across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Feminist pedagogy: A teaching approach that centres equity, collaborative learning and critical examination of power relations in educational settings.

Intersectionality: The framework for understanding how overlapping social identities (e.g. gender, race, class) shape individuals’ experiences of privilege and oppression.

Transformative learning: An educational process that prompts deep shifts in perspectives through critical reflection, dialogue and experiential engagement.

Emotional labour: The effort involved in managing one’s own and others’ emotions within professional or educational contexts to achieve learning objectives.

Tentacular thinking: A metaphor for learning environments that embrace multiplicity, interconnectedness and boundary-crossing in knowledge production.

References

1. Teaching about gender violence, with and for gender justice: epistemological, pedagogical and ethical dilemmas. Gender and Education (2023).
2. Tentacular Classrooms: Feminist Transformative Learning for Thinking and Sensing. Journal of Transformative Education (2022).
3. “Our Teaching Is Rocking Their Ontological Security”: Exploring the Emotional Labour of Transformative Criminal Justice Pedagogy. Social Sciences (2023).