Susanne Luhmann, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of Alberta, visited BYU to discuss “Pedagogy,” her 2011 essay published in Rethinking Women’s and Gender Studies. Luhmann and a group of faculty from various departments examined the essay and how to enable students to produce meaningful connections in the field of women’s studies.
PROVO, Utah (Nov. 14, 2014)—Teachers constantly transmit knowledge in the classroom, but how much of that knowledge do students actually internalize? Susanne Luhmann of the University of Alberta and BYU faculty examined feminist pedagogy and the interplay of transmitting and understanding information at a Women’s Studies Teaching and Research (WSTAR) group discussion.
Luhmann began the discussion with an exercise she often performs in the classroom. Each individual was asked to write on an index card what everyone had in common, what differentiated him or her from the group, and one question they brought to the event.
She explained that as a result of doing this exercise there was now a series of questions on the table that would not have been there otherwise.
“As a tool, I do a lot of exercises in my class where I ask students to come up with questions for themselves first and then talk with others,” said Luhmann. “I think it’s a really important exercise because it asks students to think first and write it down. In order to know something we need to talk to others or ourselves about it. This is a very important moment in cognitive learning.”
Luhmann referred to this process as think, pair and share, an exercise that she believes allows students to make meaningful connections to the material they may not have made otherwise.
“My consideration of pedagogy is less interested in techniques,” Luhmann continued. “In my work I tend to focus on the process. When I talk about pedagogy I’m interested in the moment of knowledge production that happens at the intersection of student, teacher and text. I assume that what we do in the classroom is consistently produce knowledge. We don’t transmit knowledge from the teacher to the student.”
Luhmann expressed that her hope for students is that they will apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom in way that improve their lives and makes society better.
“Part of what I’m interested in is what I call the misconception of education,” said Luhmann. “One of the assumptions we have as educators is that we think the right knowledge will lead to the right actions. We have an investment in knowledge as a social and personal good, as well as knowledge being empowering.”
Luhmann argued that one problem faced in the field of women’s studies is that this knowledge does not always feel empowering. Women’s studies’ commitment to social justice and social equality, she explained, sometimes creates unhappy or unsettling knowledge. This knowledge can be difficult for the student as well as the teacher because it asks them to act, respond and even question long-held beliefs.
“What needs to happen in the classroom is that students need to fall in love with the material in order to want to learn,” said Luhmann. “Only when we talk about an idea can we actually understand it. I don’t want my students to have kernels of information or knowledge that they put somewhere. I want them to use it. They cannot just take notes or give it back to me in an exam.“
The group discussed how they might transform knowledge production in the classroom to help their students engage in meaningful ways with the materials they are introduced to in women’s studies classes.
“Learning,” she concluded, “is not a spectator sport.”
The group was comprised of professors from a variety of departments, including Valerie Hegstrom (Spanish; women’s studies coordinator), Heather Belnap Jensen (art history), Jennifer Haraguchi (Italian), Brandie Siegfried (English), Matthew Wickman (English), Rex Nielson (Portuguese), Renata Forste (Sociology), and BYU librarian Connie Lamb.
For more information about Susanne Luhmann and her work, visit her university profile.
Sylvia Cutler, BA English ’17