Contributions of gender pedagogies to teaching quality in higher education

Abstract

Most undergraduate programs of study in Catalonia, Spain, especially in the health sciences and psychology, lack a gender perspective in teaching. To fill this gap, a series of training workshops were designed with a gender perspective in content and methodology. This article explores the important role that the introduction of feminist methodologies and pedagogies can have in enhancing the quality of teaching through an experience using collective narratives of teachers and participants. The narratives were constructed from five discussion groups with a total sample of 20 people selected according to criteria of variability and representativeness. The two narratives reveal the processes the participants experienced during the workshops and how the integration of feminist methodologies and pedagogical approaches transform the shared construction of knowledge. The main conclusion is that the introduction of feminist methodologies and epistemologies allow us to critically reflect on our practices as trainers and students in the reproduction of gender power relations in and outside the classroom to become active subjects of change.