Abstract
Active resistance to controlled course content is an integral to teaching humanities classes; reading diverse literature provides students with exposure to the unfamiliar, somewhat familiar, or validation and even understanding of their own experiences; expanding knowledge through historical and contemporary readings can help students learn while expanding presence for under-represented or suppressed communities. Exposure can help students understand how and why we have arrived where we currently are politically and socially, which often leads students to question draconian measures and come to a new or better understanding of the plights many face. While outwardly enacting feminist pedagogies in Florida classrooms is currently dangerous, students espouse a desire to learn, understand, and have uncomfortable conversations in safe places—in other words, classrooms. Therefore, in direct resistance to Florida’s draconian mandates, I carefully craft classes to resist silence and destruction and instead design instructional content that directly counterattacks such measures. Using historically based texts and texts that focus on injustices allows the fostering of important conversations in safe places where students can understand historical context and how it impacts current ideologies. Developing empathy and understanding helps students comprehend how acts of censorship, erasure, and disinformation are acts of violence against threatened communities.
Recommended Citation
Nader, Jennifer M.
(2024)
""Teaching the Past as Commentary on the Present: Challenging Suppression, Erasure, and Disinformation via Literary Texts in Times of Looming Fascism","
Feminist Pedagogy: Vol. 5:
Iss.
3, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/feministpedagogy/vol5/iss3/4