Brief, A-Mazing Movements: Dealing with Despair in the Women\u27s Studies Classroom

Women\u27s studies majors at the University of Minnesota are required to take two quarters of a course called Women\u27s Studies Seminar some time in their junior or senior year. While the theme of the seminar varies from quarter to quarter , its underlying purpose is constant: to allow students to direct knowledge and methodology gained from courses and experience toward topics of an interdisciplinary nature with a focus on women. The variant that I taught in the fall of 1978 was called Feminist Learning: The University and Beyond. Its intent was to help students become conscious of the learning process and shift their focus from content to method, from what to how and why. It is a difficult transition to make, particularly in a university where passive lecture courses are the norm. The lack of tangible subject matter can be troubling, and it takes time to get used to the teacher\u27s function, which is not to pass on information, but to guide, provoke, and challenge, often from the sidelines