The Dialectic Suppression of Feminist Thought in Radical Pedagogy

Undoubtedly, the dialectic process articulated in Hegel's Phenomenologyof Spirit has had major influences on some of composition's more notable theorists of radical or liberatory pedagogy. Theorists like Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux, although different from each other in a number of ways,seem to agree that the goal of liberatory pedagogy should be to bring about some kind of dialectic change. That is, students and their teachers should be able to enter into a rela tionshi p similar to the master -slave rela tionship described by Hegel, thus aiding them both in achieving what Freire calls a "critical consciousness." My aim, though, will be to challenge assumptions that the dialectic process works toward the benefit of all students; rather, I want to show that the dialectic search for critical consciousness contains an androcentric bias which can work to suppress the development of feminist thought in female students. In recent years, a number of feminist theorists have argued that the dominant conception of the dialectic denies women the opportunity for transcendence. It is precisely this breakdown of the dialectic, Iwillargue, that suppresses feminist thought in the classroom. My ultimate goal here, however, is to show that the dialectical structure through which radical pedagogy presently operates does not have to be a totalizing construction. Instead, I will argue that the dialectic of radical pedagogy is merely inadequate for an increasingly pluralistic culture and that through feminist deconstruction of the phallogocentrism of the dialectic, a reconstruction can take place which allows feminist thought to engage fully in a multiplicity of dialectics which will ultimately bring about positive social change.