Exploring critical feminist pedagogy: Infusing dialogue, participation, and experience in teaching and learning

Derived from the intellectual traditions of critical literacy and feminist pedagogies, this paper explores the nature, dynamics, and implications of the Dialogic, Participatory, and Experiential (DPE) approach to teaching and learning. These three dimensions are separated analytically, but are interrelated in theory and practice. They are highly fluid and context-specific, pertaining to a variety of classroom characteristics and institutional settings. Our insights and observations of the teaching and learning process emerged out of the practice and experience of a graduate-level course on focus groups in cross-cultural research in which the DPE approach was used. The specific aims of the paper are to (1) explore the meaning and value of dialogic, participatory, and experiential practices in transforming students from passive knowledge-consumers into empowered knowledge-producers; (2) discuss how this shift provides spaces for the emancipation of both teachers and students; and (3) address the challenges and risks that are encountered in the classroom when experimenting with non-traditional pedagogies.