No Angel in the Classroom: Teaching through Feminist Discourse

What is feminist pedagogy? Berenice Fisher has been engaged with this question for many years. Here she brings her rich experience as a scholar and teacher to a philosophical contemplation of questions of authority, safety, community, and difference in feminist classrooms. An invaluable book for feminist scholars and teachers and all those concerned with education for social justice. — Kathleen Weiler, Tufts University; author of Women Teaching for Change

In her eyewitness report from the front lines of the feminist movement and curriculum transformation, Fisher reminds us not only that Women’s Studies and feminist pedagogy grew out of a very real need to address social justice issues and inequities, but also that this need still exists today. Blending personal history, classroom interactions, and the voices of a diversity of feminist theorists, her richly layered analysis never strays from the political commitment on which liberatory pedagogy is based. — Liza Fiol-Matta, author of Women of Color and the Multicultural Curriculum: Transforming the College Classroom

Berenice Malka Fisher steps back from the narrowness of contemporary pedagogical debate to address more philosophical questions, such as the nature of feminist pedagogy, and aims to share the experiences of those who address social justice through their teaching. Fisher’s book doesn’t put forward easy answers to the question of what feminist pedagogy is, but characterizes it as work-in-progress, encouraging teachers to reflect upon their own practice and struggle towards their own answers and goes some way toward alleviating the sense of isolation that those who engage in feminist theory and practice feel. ― Education Review

Berenice Malka Fisher has written a book that should be of interest to all feminist teachers. The book is dynamic and highly readable, with numerous examples of hypothetical classroom situations that make the issues it discusses concrete. She [Fisher] raises important questions and discusses them thoughtfully. If you have taught, are teaching, or might teach, this is a good book to show you that you are not only one who finds it difficult. ― Off Our Backs: The Feminist NewsJournal

A truly exciting book that moves far into the intellectual, personal, moral, and political depths of feminist teaching. . . . Teachers will be able to use this book to bring a wide range of feminist theories before students not as contestants for their loyalty, nor as a mere smorgasbord, but as resources for thinking about pressing situations in their own lives, classes, worlds. — Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, author of Transforming Knowledge, Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences of the Union Institute

In No Angel in the Classroom, Fisher shares the lessons she has learned as a feminist practitioner from the mid-1960s to the present. . . . Through a powerful self-reflective assessment of her own pedagogical strategies, Fisher addresses many of the key questions that haunt feminist educators in this so-called “post-feminist” age. Fisher explores the limit and possibilities of consciousness raising and the interplay between experience and theory. She calls for expanded accountability, encourages risk taking in the classroom, and leaves the reader with a cautious optimism about the power of feminist discourse for teaching and modeling social justice. As a result, No Angel in the Classroom is a powerful tool for graduate training in women’s studies as well as a vital resource for feminist instructors located in diverse academic settings. — Nancy A. Naples, professor of sociology and women’s studies, University of Connecticut

Teachers may find this book useful in approaching topics dealing with women’s studies and feminism. ― Hispanic Outlook

A thought-provoking work, offering a social history of the feminist movement and relating the author’s experiences as a long-time feminist educator. ― Library Journal

No Angel in the Classroom engages these and many more such classroom dynamics in the most wide-ranging and througt-provoking examination of feminist pedagogy. ― Psychology of Women Quarterly

No Angel in the Classroom is thought provoking… Fisher’s contribution to our understanding of feminist teaching is a valuable addition. ― Gender & Society

No Angel in the Classroom engages classroom dynamics in the most wide-ranging and thought-provoking examination of feminist pedagogy I’ve read since bell hooks’Teaching to Transgress. I recommend this book to the neophyte as well as the established feminist academic. ― Psychology of Women Quarterly

A fascinating glimpse of a first generation of feminist academics at work. ― Journal Of Educational Thought(Jet)

One of the most worthwhile reasons for reading this book is the pragmatic teaching advice. ― Interchange

Inspiring , scholarly and wonderfully readable book. ― Studies In Continuing Education

I adopted No Angels in the Classroom for my doctoral seminar course this past fall, the Professional Seminar in the Teaching of English at Illinois State University. This is a required course for all students in our doctoral program in English Studies. This English studies model explores interactions among different fields of English, including: literature, composition, rhetoric, linguistics, critical theory, and pedagogy and each student in the course specialized in one of any of these areas. There were also several international students in the course, one from Japan, one from Thailand, one from Korea, one from Cameroon, and one from Kuwait. We have a large international doctoral program. Everyone’s responses to Fisher’s text in this culturally and academically diverse class was enthusiastic. Most of my students felt that for the first time they began to understand who they were as teachers. They felt that Fisher articulated things they knew to be true, but had never thought through themselves, ideas about the place of personal experience and authority in the classroom, or about care, safety, and difference. Some of our most exciting discussions during the semester occurred in relation to the key issues Fisher raises about feminist classrooms. A student who initially resisted the text because of its focus on feminist pedagogy, which he thought had nothing to do with him, finally understood that feminism did not exclude men. In fact, the text helped him articulate many of his own pedagogical ideas that were closely related to Fisher’s ideas about reflection, safety, and identity. Another student who believed he would be lecturing primarily, also found ways to apply Fisher’s ideas to his own teaching situation. Whether postcolonial or medieval scholars, ESL or EFL teachers, everyone incorporated ideas from this text into their work for the course. This was the first book we read in our class and the students didn’t stop talking about how much they had learned from it the entire semester. It helped them — Paula Ressler