Feminist Pedagogy in Digital Spaces: Brief Systematic Literature Review

In this digitally driven era, many people worldwide access social media and other online platforms, proving that the power of the internet has become indisputable in the modern age (Fotopoulou, 2016). Digital media is also praised for its potential for fostering global communities of feminists who participate in social networks to debate, discuss, and share information and to call for action (Munro, 2013). Social media affords amplification of women’s voices in neoliberal digital spaces (Pruchniewska, 2018) and serves as a new means of organizing campaigns against issues of inequality and social injustice (Eudey, 2012).

Feminist pedagogy is adopted as a theoretical framework in analyzing the content of the 10 articles chosen for the systematic analysis. This pedagogy, based primarily on feminist pedagogy, includes teaching strategies that consider knowledge as socially constructed (Weiler, 1995). However, the core of feminist pedagogy is a teaching method geared to empowering the mode of learning that places women at the forefront (Luke,1994). According to Luke (1994), feminist pedagogy raises Chynar Amanova, Northern Illinois University, 1 425 W Lincoln Highway, Dekalb, IL 60115. Email: turkmcha@gmail.comwomen’s identity in mainstream academic discourse. Focusing on feminine scholarship and politicizing women’s issues, this pedagogy offers an approach to forming educational practices that raise the consciousness of issues of inequity. It also acknowledges the diversity of women’s experiences and fosters inclusive content delivery in educational settings.

Before analyzing the 10 articles included in the systematic review, I examined some other articles separately to extract the various definitions of feminist pedagogy. As a term, feminist pedagogy was coined during the 1980s to describe teaching methods used by feminist scholars in women’s studies programs (Shackelford, 2020). Since that time, scholars have developed different definitions of feminist pedagogy. Maher (1987) defines feminist pedagogy as a teaching practice that stems from two sources: liberation pedagogy and feminist theories. As the author argues, these two approaches complement each other. When practiced together, they produce what Maher terms feminist pedagogy, which she describes as a robust pedagogy that can challenge traditional teaching practices in higher education. Using such pedagogy in higher education helps promote the role of women in education, helping improve teaching practices to support both women and minority students (Maher, 1987). Discussing the underrepresentation of women (and men of color) in science, Mayberry (1998) describes feminist pedagogy as a teaching practice that helps resist the dominant discourse and transform current learning practices by advocating for collaborative learning in science. Grande (2003) defines feminist pedagogy as practice that fosters students (from diverse backgrounds) by encouraging student-centered learning.

Shackelford (2020) describes feminist pedagogy as student-centered and one that emphasizes cooperation in the learning and teaching process. “Since feminist pedagogy focuses on developing critical thinking, Shackelford recommends that educators, specifically economists, practice feminist pedagogy as they can utilize dialogic approaches to teaching and collaborative learning.

A systematic literature review was chosen as a mode of inquiry for this study to conduct critical content analyses of the studies included in this literature review. Structured literature review is a systematic approach to identifying, collating, and analyzing a set of studies by defining its boundaries regarding what will be included and excluded (Bisogno et al., 2018). Adopting a structured literature review methodology and applying the topical category of structured literature review was deemed appropriate to analyze the articles related to research questions.

The inclusion criteria of the studies were as follows: (1) studies that utilized feminist media research; (2) articles that were published from 2017 to 2019; (3) studies that explicitly highlighted the teaching and learning aspects of hashtag activism. The articles that did not explicitly discuss teaching and learning/raising consciousness awareness aspects of digital feminism were excluded. However, this review did not apply exclusionary criteria to the methodology of reviewed studies. It aimed to examine different approaches in analyzing hashtag feminist activism that is practiced on online platforms.

Because the search engine Education Resources Information Center (provided EBSCO) did not yield a sufficient number of relevant resources for the review, Google Scholar was used. The review targeted peer-reviewed journal articles and excluding dissertations and books that are not available open-source or through the Northern Illinois University’s library database. Over 40 entries were scanned for eligibility before the 10 articles were selected. The following research questions (RQ) were formulated to analyze the content of the articles:

1. What is the focus of the research of the articles?

2. Which theoretical framework(s) did the studies use?

3. What methodologies did the studies employ?

To analyze the content of the selected studies, a free and open-source software— Docear—was used. Docear is a new solution to academic literature management, allowing the most comprehensive organization of literature. As this software offers PDF metadata retrieval, it allowed me to transfer my annotations from the PDF files selected for the study. This process helped me identify the similarity of words/concepts related to teaching and learning aspects featured across the sample of studies.

Concerning RQ1, the teaching, learning, and consciousness-raising aspects of the research have been identified as the foci of the selected studies. The content of the articles highlighted educational aspects of the blogs through which feminist movements, using the feminist mantra “personal is political,” empowered women to share their experiences with racism, sexism, and other “isms” and to create collective identities in their fight against social injustice concerning women. Some of the research highlighted the connection between the second and fourth waves of feminism, stating that the personal is political slogan of second-wave feminism was used to discuss online feminist movements. The phrase was coined by Carole Hanisch in 1969 and later was recuperated by Audrey Lorde (Troutman, 2014).

The Personal Is Political. The seminal articles (e.g., Aitken, 2017; Kim & Ringrose, 2018; Rogan & Budgeon 2018; Zimmerman, 2017) reviewed in relation to this theme discussed how personal stories shared on digital platforms had acquired political meanings. The authors did this by discussing different contexts where these digital writers have applied the popular feminist slogan personal is political.” For instance, Aitken’s (2017) article opened a conversation about the empowering and consciousness-raising power of fourthwave feminism through relevant examples. As she noted, the use of the second wave feminists’ famous slogan “personal is political” in the fourth-wave digital movements connected these discreet historical phases of feminism because both phases witnessed the encouragement among participants of sharing their personal stories to raise salient political issues. Although Aitken (2017) talked about active digital movements in general without focusing on the specific hashtag movement, she underscored the power of digital tools in amplifying the diverse voices in inclusive global platforms. Online platforms have the power of uniting and informing women, especially young women, discovering feminism and developing collective identities across digital spaces on issues that resonate with their experience (Aitken, 2017). Drawing a parallel between second-wave and fourth-wave feminism, Zimmerman (2017) explained that the important message of the second wave, that the “personal is political,” has been a tool for collective consciousness-raising and has endured into to the fourth wave, where digital technology has become the medium for organizing and raising consciousness. To highlight the importance of the Twitter community in the analysis of the discourses on racism, feminism, and online representation, Zimmerman (2017) traced the genealogy of fourth-wave feminism, noting that this movement combines essential elements of the second and third waves of feminism, such as the second wave’s emphasis on resistance to oppression and the third wave’s recognition of digital culture to facilitate feminist discourses. Initially taking a critical stance on the political role of fourth-wave feminism, Rogan and Budgeon (2018) posed a question about the applicability of the second-wave movement’s slogan the personal is political slogan to digital feminism. The authors collected data through a questionnaire posted on Facebook and Twitter from young women under 21 across the United Kingdom. Based on their findings, the authors recommended the importance of social media in providing a political space that is consistent with second-wave feminists to help women define their personal identities through the connection with others through Facebook events and tweets engage with politics. Discussing experiences of young girls at a secondary school in England with digital feminism, Kim and Ringrose (2018) recommended that social media could serve as a strategic tool for exploring rape culture and other topics. The girls joined feminist movements for personal reasons, such as raising their consciousness about feminism. Through their engagement with online feminism, they could challenge “notions of youth as politically indifferent and inept” (p. 47).

Focusing on the feminist analysis of hashtag movements, several other articles (e.g., Barker-Plummer & Barker-Plummer, 2017; Jester, 2018; Mendes et al., 2018; Point, 2019; Ringrose, 2018; Turley & Fisher, 2018) highlighted the links between trending (personal) topics with a larger structural framework (political). For example, analyzing frequently used terms in #YesAllWomen, Barker-Plummer and Barker-Plummer (2017) note that this hashtag feminism is both personal and political discourse because most of the shared stories comprise first-person accounts of oppression, gendered violence, and sexual assault. #YesAllWomen reinforces feminist rhetoric and links trending topics with a larger structural framework (i.e., it creates links between the personal and the political). By analyzing discourses of hashtags #MeToo and #BeenRaped-NeverReported movements, Mendes et al. (2017) discuss how these popular online feminist movements create safe spaces that challenge sexism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression via digital platforms. Extending this conversation to the #MosqueMeToo movement, Point’s (2019) article examines the potential of this hashtag feminism for empowering Muslim women. It encompasses the real-life experiences and views of Muslim women across the globe. The unique aspect of this movement is that it analyzes feminist and religious discourses together, raising consciousness about the interrelatedness of these topics regarding Muslim women’s experiences. Turley and Fisher (2018) discuss British feminists’ hashtags, namely #everydaysexism and #shoutingback, for their protests against unequal treatment of women in the patriarchal culture while advocating for issues that affect women worldwide. Highlighting the importance of social networking sites for fostering feminist movements, the authors note that digital spaces are vital for practicing the fourth wave of feminism in creating global communities. Jester (2018) analyzed the three curriculum groups (Rhodes Must Fall, Why Is My Curriculum White?, and Women Also Know Stuff) to underscore the importance of diverse experiences in the dominant Western academic discourse, which operate to bring changes to higher education. Therefore, Jester (2018) proposes that scholarship on the feminist fourth wave can be enhanced by examining these groups, as some successful events offer promising opportunities. For example, retweets and hashtags allowed showcasing the work of women in history (@womnknowhistory (through Women Also Know Stuff website’s “Women Also Tweet” section) while global Facebook groups of Why Is My Curriculum White? helped organize events to garner support for making curricula diverse and representative of all groups of people. Ringrose (2017) also discusses the benefits of using Twitter as a teaching tool in higher education contexts, detailing her lecture where she deconstructed her personal activism through a Twitter account. Ringrose’s participation in major feminist Twitter discourses about the U.S. election in 2016 helped her initiate a debate on raising awareness among her students about the importance of fostering the feminist slogan, the personal is political through tweet cultures.

Concerning the findings of RQ2, the findings revealed three major themes. The authors of the selected studies (1) used internationality as a framework, (2) they emphasized feminist pedagogy throughout their articles, and (3) they relied on Freire’s pedagogy as a theoretical basis.

Intersectionality as a Framework. Although Aitken (2017) does not frame her study within intersectionality, she recommends that the combination of community education with feminist pedagogies can help raise consciousness about intersectional identities. Criticizing #YesAll-Women from the intersectional feminist lens, Barker-Plummer and Barker-Plummer (2017) point out the movement’s failure to be adequately intersectional due to its dominant White discourse, thereby making intersectional feminists set up parallel hashtags. Jester (2018) argues that intersectionality is the foundational principle of curriculum activism and is a core component of fourth-wave feminism within the higher education context. Drawing from the works of Tara L. Conley and Kimberlé Crenshaw, Point (2019) explores the potential of hashtag movements to raise intersectional awareness about Muslim women’s struggles for equality, contributing to the debates surrounding gender and Islam and to transnational feminist studies. Although Turley and Fisher (2018) do not use the intersectionality framework, they underscored the importance of social media campaigns for fighting against sexism, misogyny, and rape culture through online discussions. To enhance the discussion, they recommend analyzing online feminism through the lens of transdisciplinary literature, namely national, transnational, and global academic literature. Drawing on Black feminist and intersectional feminist scholarship, Ringrose (2017) explores racism and misogyny in the debates on Twitter surrounding the 2016 election in the United States. Mendes et al. (2017) Mendes et al. state that feminist scholars/researchers/activists should read Twitter feeds through an intersectional lens because looking at the feeds through intersectionality allows us to understand that Twitter feeds are accessible to people of different races, abilities, classes, and so forth. Zimmerman (2017) also draws on intersectional scholars’ works, noting that intersectionality serves as the political driver and theoretical framework employed by fourth-wave feminists. According to Zimmerman, this framework is necessary for analyzing hashtag movements to foster dialogs on intersectional identities and their representation in online platforms.

Feminist Pedagogy. All the articles reviewed explicitly or implicitly highlighted the importance of feminist pedagogy to understand the discourse in hashtag movements. Therefore, it is important how the scholars describe feminist pedagogy in these articles. For instance, Aitken (2017) summarizes research on feminist pedagogies by drawing attention to the relationship between community education and feminist pedagogical practice. Critically analyzing feminist teaching and consciousness-raising practices, the author explored these practices’ consistency with a community education approach. Focusing on fourth-wave feminism, Aitken (2017) underscores the power of online platforms to evoke debates on gender inequality through campaigns and to amplify feminist voices. Trying to explain how feminist pedagogy is practiced through a hashtag movement, Barker-Plummer and Barker-Plummer (2017) draw attention to the discursive activism that took on the platform in two forms: (a) a site for collective identity to raise consciousness (sharing of experiences and stories) and (b) recirculation of shared stories and experiences through other platforms, affecting public discourse beyond Twitter. Although not explicitly, Point’s (2019) study notes that fourth-wave feminism affords a contemporary method of community building, namely through the sharing of collective experience. When discussing the importance of feminist pedagogy in raising consciousness about racism and sexism through Twitter, Ringrose (2018) reflects on the dynamics of her participation in Twitter as a public medium for practicing feminist pedagogy.

Pedagogy of Oppressed as a Theoretical Basis of Feminist Pedagogy. Some articles trace feminist pedagogy back to Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1994) and comment on the importance of the pedagogy in exploring feminist issues discussed in their studies. Indeed, Pedagogy of the Oppressed provides an appropriate departure point for feminist pedagogies because Paulo Freire asserts that knowledge production is a dynamic dialogue in which the learner is directly involved (Aitken, 2017). Aitken (2017) notes that feminist pedagogies replenished Freire’s work, emphasizing gender in traditional educational contexts and creating an inclusive framework that aims to restructure education as a space for all genders. Jester (2018) argues that Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed allows us to understand the feminist components of curriculum activist groups as it forms the basis of the groups, specifically of Why Is My Curriculum White?

Concerning RQ3, I classified the articles based on the authors’ own descriptions of their methodologies. For example, Barker-Plummer and Barker-Plummer’s (2017) case study’s methodology was the content and discourse analysis of the #YesAll-Women hashtag, including two million tweets and 251 media and blog stories, the interactions of which are traced back to the hashtag. The rationale for choosing #YesAllWomen as a case study explained the hashtag’s potential to underscore the importance of online discursive politics for public debate and digital protest. Second, #YesAllWomen is a successful example of how feminists develop new strategies to engage and utilize emergent communications platforms.

The findings of the study underscore the importance of examining pedagogy centered on anonymous social media spaces. Therefore, educational practitioners, university professors, and rhetoric scholars are charged with an important task: to participate in anonymous and pseudonymous digital social media to reveal opportunities for democratic participation using the discourse of digital media to integrate them into their courses.

Chynar Amanova is a doctoral student from Northern Illinois University. She has an EdD degree in adult and higher education. I am from Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia. The teaching experience in my country includes, but is not limited to, teaching English to diverse learners. As an educational researcher, I am currently engaged in research that involves integrating technology into the teaching process.