Circe (2018) by Madeline Miller is a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of the witch Circe. The novel challenges the previous portrayal of Circe as a vindictive seductress and provides insight into the narrative of a woman negotiating a man’s world, in which she is denied autonomy due to her gender. This essay focuses on how oppressive structures prevent the protagonist to psychologically develop towards their true potential in Circe. Jungian psychoanalytic theory of individuation and archetypes are applied to analyze the psychological process. In addition, the impact of hegemonic masculinity in Circe is examined as it stunts the protagonist’s progress in individuation. Furthermore, Circe can be a tool in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in upper secondary school to enable discussions on gender oppression and unjust social structures. A feminist reading of the individuation process in Circe can provide new insight into the effects of gender oppression as it concerns the psychological impact of unjust treatment.

This qualitative study explored the experiences and insights of four alumnae from a girls’ after-school writing program and the program’s transformative impact on development of their literacy, their voice, and their confidence. The writing program, InkGirls (a pseudonym), was for girls of color ages 13 to 18 who lived in metropolitan Los Angeles. Participants attended high-density public schools located in low-income neighborhoods. Curriculum and instructional practices in such public schools have been critiqued as substandard, rote, and lacking opportunities for critical thinking and student voice (Darder, 2015). Gender bias in the classroom, and the lack of representation of women of color in instructional materials also have been legitimate concerns in U.S. public schooling (Sadker, Sadker, & Zittleman, 2009). Using a theoretical framework of critical pedagogy (Freire, 2000) and critical feminist pedagogy (Weiler, 1988), this qualitative study investigated practices of critical literacy (Christensen, 2009) in the writing program that promoted development of literacy and voice and elevated the critical consciousness and social agency of the participants. The program’s elements of critical literacy included studying relatable texts, reading from critical perspectives, writing personal narratives, and completing social action projects in public readings for a live audience. The findings from the program’s curriculum and public readings, and the perceptions of the former participants pointed to critical literacy as an effective approach to literacy instruction and development of voice and agency.

This thesis describes the use of feminist performance pedagogy in working toward a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) practice that engages youth in social justice. Drawing on feminist and pedagogical theories, this document explores the processes of writing, rehearsing, and touring a new social justice play for youth called 'And Then Came Tango.' The qualitative study outlined in this MFA thesis uses feminist research methodologies to analyze the engagement of the playwright, the artistic team working on the production of 'And Then Came Tango,' and the second and third grade audiences that participated in the touring production and post-show workshops. The author weaves personal story throughout the document in order to create new meaning around the research experiences as well as to illustrate the personal dimensions of engaging in the struggle around LGBTQ injustice. The discussion invites future artists, educators, and activists to imagine how theory, aesthetics, artists, and communities collaborate in order to work toward socially just and interactive TYA. / text

This dissertation examines the feminist intersections of composition studies, visual rhetoric, and comics studies in order to identify a rhetorically interdisciplinary approach to composition that moves beyond composition studies’ persistent separation of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, rhetoric and ideology, and analysis and composition. Chapter one transgresses the qualitative/quantitative divide using keyword analysis and visualization of 2,573 dissertation and thesis abstracts published between 1979 – 2012 to engage in what composition studies scholar Derek Mueller terms a “distant reading” of the extent and contexts of composition studies’ self-identified interdisciplinarity. Complementing my more traditional literature review, the results of this analysis validate the necessity of my analytical and pedagogical interventions by suggesting that composition studies has not yet addressed comics through the feminist intersections of visual rhetoric and critical pedagogy. Chapters two and three develop a rhetorical analytical approach to comics that moves beyond comics studies’ persistent separation of rhetoric and ideology by positing conflict as an identifiable form of rhetorical persuasion in the Martha Washington comics. These comics were collaboratively created by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons between 1989 – 2007. Following feminist rhetorician Susan Jarratt’s case for rhetorical conflict as a pedagogical tool and extending Chicana feminist Chela Sandoval’s conceptualization of meta-ideologizing in which oppressive ideologies are re-signified via recontextualizations that juxtapose ‘old’ and ‘new’ signs of ideological meaning, I explore the rhetorically persuasive conflict arising from visual, conceptual, and embodied juxtapositions of race, class, and gender made visible in these comics. Chapter four outlines a feminist, critical, visual rhetorical – what I call prismatic – approach to composition pedagogy that requires (1) contexts in which differences and conflicts can be identified and engaged, (2) explicable sites of intersection between ideological perspectives and rhetorical construction, and (3) models for the transition from ideological critique to (re)composition. This is not an add-pop-genre-and-stir approach to composition pedagogy; rather, it intentionally deploys comics’ inherent multimodality as a challenge to students’ often narrow definitions of rhetoric and composition.

[pt] A presente dissertação buscou refletir e problematizar as representações sobre as mulheres presentes em livros didáticos de história direcionados à última série do Ensino Fundamental II (atual nono ano) publicados entre 2001 e 2007. Foi analisado ainda o lugar que ocupa a questão de gênero no discurso dos currículos - Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (1998) e Manuais e Guias do Programa Nacional do Livro Didático. Nas questões contidas na dissertação, está presente a inquietação em relação à forma como a atuação das mulheres como agentes históricos foi construída ao longo dos anos nos materiais didáticos, em perspectiva com a ação masculina, criando discursos que diminuem a voz feminina. Como cabedal teórico metodológico utilizou-se a epistemologia feminista e o conceito de gênero. O foco principal das análises esteve sobre o texto dos livros didáticos, mais especificamente, os conteúdos relacionados ao século XX, nos quais foram observados os usos e as intenções dos textos e os significados que estes permitem construir, analisando se estes contribuem ou não para a manutenção de uma cultura sexista. As metodologias da Análise do Discurso, tal como proposta por Foucault, foram a base para a construção das análises deste trabalho. / [en] The present dissertation intends to reflect on and problematize the representations about women present in textbooks of History directed to the last grade of Elementary School - 9th grade of High School - published between 2001 and 2007. It was also analyzed the place of the gender issue in curriculum discourse – Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (1998) and handbooks and guides of Programa Nacional do Livro Didático. In the questions of this writing, is contained the disquiet about the way in which the performance of women as historical agents was built over the years in didactic materials, in perspective with the male action, creating discourses that fade the female voice. Feminist epistemology and the concept of gender were used as a theoretical methodological tool. The main focus of the analyzes was on the text of the textbooks, more specifically the contents related to the twentieth century, in which the uses and intentions of the texts, and their meanings, were observed, analyzing whether or not they contribute to the maintenance of a sexist culture. Discourse Analysis methodologies, as proposed by Foucault, were the basis for the construction of the analyzes of this work.

No description available.

Over the last two decades research into the notion of empowerment has been focused on the three primary dimensions of process, outcomes and environment within the contexts of the individual, community groups and business organisations. As a psychological attribute, empowerment at the individual level has been investigated significantly by such theorists as Rappaport (1995) and Zimmerman (2000). However, studies in this field neglect deep understanding of the reality of the individual's experiences of the empowerment process. Definitions within the literature refer to empowerment as being a process which occurs over time for the individual who is personally challenged to achieve power and control within his/her own life context by the application and reflection of learning new knowledge and skills. The purpose of this investigative case study is to examine the reality of the empowerment process as it occurs in the individual lives of a group of women who have actively participated in the learning environment of an investment club over a 2 year period in Brisbane. The three dimensions of empowerment support the structure of the study with the findings evidencing 'authentic empowerment' is achieved when the individual seeks to operate within the dual learning environments of the supportive group as well as the solo learning environment. The reality of individual authentic empowerment proved to be a continuum of experience dependent upon the individual's levels of motivation, energy, decision-making abilities, knowledge, risk taking, confidence, time and goals. Sustainability of empowerment related to the participant's level of active involvement in the dual learning environments while accepting complete responsibility for actions and consequences.

No description available.

The concepts of intersectionality and interlocking identities came out of needs raised by communities and then academics wrote about it. This dissertation examines these concepts and how these resonate with the ways that feminist educators conceptualize and facilitate non-credit learning processes with women. This research focuses on 10 differently-located feminist educators and the processes they lead that meet a range of learning goals. Specifically, this research examines the learning practices that these educators used to help women learners gain a consciousness around their identity and issues of power and oppression. I then discuss how these practices resonate with the theoretical frameworks of intersecting and interlocking oppressions. Anti-oppression, feminist informed research and feminist standpoint theories informed the research approach. The Critical Appreciative Process, which builds on the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, was used to explore what is working within feminist non-credit learning processes. In addition, two case studies were elaborated on in order to examine the learning practices that were particularly successful. The educators reflected on several barriers involved in bringing differently-located women together to explore and address the power dynamics associated with power and oppression. These included the defensiveness, denial and avoidance associated with acknowledging and addressing privilege. The educators also shared effective practices for addressing such barriers. Key practices included creating an environment for difficult conversations, working intergenerationally, using theoretical frameworks to deconstructing interpersonal dynamics occurring in the group and providing tools to draw on everyday experiences and challenge (inappropriate) behaviours. Additionally, specific activities for raising learners’ awareness of their own complex and multiple identities and how these identities are co-constructed through interactions with others were detailed. This study revealed the limitations of intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks in praxis, as well as the ways in which an awareness of identity, difference and power creates an entry point for intersectional and interlocking awareness that aids feminist movements. This research makes a contribution to strengthening the praxis of feminist educators facilitating non-credit processes. Within feminist theorizing, this research also makes an important contribution in contextualizing intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks within a range of feminist non-credit learning practices.

The concepts of intersectionality and interlocking identities came out of needs raised by communities and then academics wrote about it. This dissertation examines these concepts and how these resonate with the ways that feminist educators conceptualize and facilitate non-credit learning processes with women. This research focuses on 10 differently-located feminist educators and the processes they lead that meet a range of learning goals. Specifically, this research examines the learning practices that these educators used to help women learners gain a consciousness around their identity and issues of power and oppression. I then discuss how these practices resonate with the theoretical frameworks of intersecting and interlocking oppressions. Anti-oppression, feminist informed research and feminist standpoint theories informed the research approach. The Critical Appreciative Process, which builds on the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, was used to explore what is working within feminist non-credit learning processes. In addition, two case studies were elaborated on in order to examine the learning practices that were particularly successful. The educators reflected on several barriers involved in bringing differently-located women together to explore and address the power dynamics associated with power and oppression. These included the defensiveness, denial and avoidance associated with acknowledging and addressing privilege. The educators also shared effective practices for addressing such barriers. Key practices included creating an environment for difficult conversations, working intergenerationally, using theoretical frameworks to deconstructing interpersonal dynamics occurring in the group and providing tools to draw on everyday experiences and challenge (inappropriate) behaviours. Additionally, specific activities for raising learners’ awareness of their own complex and multiple identities and how these identities are co-constructed through interactions with others were detailed. This study revealed the limitations of intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks in praxis, as well as the ways in which an awareness of identity, difference and power creates an entry point for intersectional and interlocking awareness that aids feminist movements. This research makes a contribution to strengthening the praxis of feminist educators facilitating non-credit processes. Within feminist theorizing, this research also makes an important contribution in contextualizing intersectionality and interlocking identities frameworks within a range of feminist non-credit learning practices.