ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief overview of feminist theory and then addresses how a critical feminist pedagogy, linking feminist scholarship and political activism, can contribute to a more inclusive and democratic imperative in American education and school reform. Feminist theory has evolved significantly over the past three decades and has formed a theoretically complex feminist practice. To embrace the project of a critical feminist pedagogy, some guiding principles are addressed. First, a critical feminist pedagogy should engage in students' experience as central to teaching and learning. Second, students should be offered both the knowledge and skills that allow them to reclaim their voice and history so as to enable them to name new identities. Third, students should be provided the opportunity to rewrite the relations between centers and margins as part of an effort to understand power and agency. Finally, students should be given the opportunity to understand and reconstruct cultural differences, economic inequities, and social identities.
