Revitalising Teacher Education Through Feminist Praxis: A Reflection on Challenging Systems of Patriarchy, Class and Colonialism

Abstract

This chapter presents a storyline of feminist activism from teaching to teacher education. Feminist educators in the 1970s and 1980s challenged the exclusion of women and girls from historical and contemporary narratives and developed and implemented curriculum and industrial polices for social justice. Elements of patriarchy and class in schools and society were examined with students. Challenging colonialism was harder to bring to the classroom. How to work together with Indigenous colleagues remains critical. Feminist praxis is explored as a methodology and epistemology of activism able to offer ways to revitalise university teacher education through empathy and courage and solidarity.