On Teaching about Gender
Or a story of pedagogical whiplash
I am relatively new to teaching in an academic context. I am lucky to have experience teaching migrant workers, youth with disabilities, and public servants, but somehow this did not prepare me to lead tutorials, especially ones on topics related to gender issues. This prompted me to reflect on why this felt so drastically different. After all, the same pedagogical concerns about the clarity of my communication, the skill-building component of the material, and the importance of a healthy and constructive discussion space were relevant regardless of the topic at hand. The following points of difference reflect my own experience and are by no means exhaustive, but I hope they will resonate with others and maybe contribute to ongoing discussions.
- The myth of the âneutral educatorâ
I was always taught that any presentation, whether it was informative or argumentative, always has an angle and betrays some kind of bias. This is just a bi-product of choosing how to arrange which words to better secure the desired outcome of the communication. As I transition into the role of an educator I try to stay acutely aware of how my choices affect and direct the learning opportunities of my students. When I taught Cartesian metaphysics and epistemology my main concern was how to convey Descartes arguments in such a way that would stimulate inquiry and analysis. I tried different tactics and felt free to play with various pedagogical approaches. However, when I started teaching a course called âGender Equalityâ I suddenly felt jerked to a stop in my tracks.
I felt that a strong part of my identity as a feminist was somehow in conflict with my role as a tutor. I realised this was because academia still maintains the unspoken rule that lecturers and tutors should not show bias and be âneutralâ moderators. As I have mentioned above, this is silly and impossible to achieve, yet it is required of us. Some of the most common complaints from students about this specific course is that they feel they cannot express themselves because âtutorials are biasedâ. The very limited amount of training I received included being encouraged to not correct students who said factually incorrect things. The only problem is that, in a course pertaining to gender issues, I consider some of these interventions to be at best jarring and at worst very damaging. It is one thing to let a logical fallacy slide in the name of the learning process and another to not intervene when a student declares proudly that systemic racism doesnât exist, at least in my opinion. It is not that I donât care about the integrity of rational discourse, but my alarms go off when uninformed opinions are shared about womenâs ânatural and biological role as caregiversâ.
When I am teaching about gender I feel like more of a stakeholder. It is therefore harder for me to slip into the costume of the impartial moderator and I am not sure if this is a problem or not. I know that tutorials are intended to be a collaborative learning experience for the students and are not primarily a forum for my own ideas, but I still feel that sensitive topics expose the reality that is present in all teaching: we cannot successfully remove ourselves completely from the equation. My work lately has focused on experimenting with ways of being transparent with my students about my general beliefs while at the same time practicing active listening even if I personally disagree. But this leads me to my second point.
- No one prepares you for the emotional damage
All teachers should receive emotional resiliency support. When the focus is on improving the student experience it is too easy to forget that educators are also human beings. It is not just the hours of preparation and marking that take a toll on us; sometimes the very thing we live for, witnessing students learn, can be triggering and damaging. I mentioned above the issue of dealing with problematic statements in class, but the process of marking assignments can be even more difficult emotionally in my experience. I get a twinge of irritation when a studentâs essay blatantly misses the point, but I get anxious and distraught when essay after essay argues that womenâs bodies are inferior. I taught âGender Equalityâ last year as well and it took me weeks to process the terrible effects of marking exams. This sounds very dramatic, but imagine sitting alone at your desk, reading anonymous pieces that are trying their best to rationalise the very power structures you deal with every day and are actively trying to oppose. The fact that they are not addressed to you specifically makes it worse. These arenât malicious trolls foisting their general anger onto you, they are well-intentioned 19 year-olds who are speaking from their gut in an assignment that ostensibly has nothing to do with you. Except it does have to do with you. Your body-mind has to absorb harmful messaging and somehow manage to produce constructive comments about it.
I do not write this because I want to be pitied. I write this because I hope that someone will relate, if only to let me know I am not a (complete) drama queen. I want to be an effective and inspiring educator. I want to be able to help others learn and learn from them in return. But I also believe that too much dissociation is asked of teachers while at the same time demanding their full presence. There is no such thing as an objective way to teach. There is no way we can remove ourselves as human beings from the learning process. We must find ways to support each other and acknowledge that teaching is not only about being effective and inspiring. It is about being vulnerable.
Ălaina Gauthier-Mamaril (she/her) is a third-year PhD student in philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. Her research focuses on Spinoza’s theory of agency and she has been leading tutorials and lectures for the past two years.
The Postgraduate Gender Research Network of Scotland 
