How best to teach feminist theory? Challenges, dilemmas and politics.

This paper examines and reflects on the challenges, dilemmas, and politics of teaching feminist political theory at undergraduate level in post-92 HEIs focusing on curriculum design and content. It draws upon and utilises the ideas of constructive alignment as set out by Biggs & Tang (2011) and Loughlin et al (2021), as well as feminist pedagogies as developed by hooks (1994) and McMahon (2018). It argues that approaches to teaching feminist theory at undergraduate level can be problematic because they typically fall back on a particular way of structuring or organising the curriculum and content. This can take the form that is sometimes referred to as the ‘hyphenated model’ of ‘schools of thought’ approach – where feminist theory is explored by way of reference to its underpinning or drawing from mainstream political ideological theories and traditions – such a liberal feminism, socialist feminism or ecofeminism etc., This approach is replicated and re-enforced by textbooks and much of the secondary literature aimed to support staff and students teaching and studying feminist theory (Bryson 2016; Tong 2018; Finlayson 2016; Beasley 1999; Whelehan 1995). One of the alternatives to this approach is to explore feminist theory via the examination of key thinkers or theorists. This approach is often combined alongside a thematic or issue based or schools of thought approach. Utilising either of these approaches to inform curriculum design or content for feminist theory teaching can lead to a mis-alignment - such that the course curriculum and content pulls away from, and diverts, the constructive alignment of intended learning outcomes with teaching activities and assessment tasks. It can also encourage surface rather than deep learning (Biggs & Tang 2011, p.24-28) and reduce the efficacy and/or relevance and currency of feminist theory for the student learner. Furthermore, reliance on these approaches to curriculum design brings feminist theory teaching into tension with the aims of feminist pedagogy. These challenges and dilemmas are explored throughout this paper. In the final section, an alternative approach is scoped - one that facilitates the principles of constructive alignment and is aligned with a feminist pedagogy. This alternative approach is informed by the work of Disch and Hawkesworth (2016) and takes as its starting point the characteristics of what feminist theory does rather than identifying ways to organise, conceptualise or categorise feminist theory or identify key thinkers as exemplars of (these) traditions. This alternative, thematic, approach to curriculum design and organisation is explored and the ramifications are discussed.