Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2007

Department

Law and Society

Department

Criminology

Abstract

This paper addresses the personal demands that Teaching Assistants (TAs) encounter as they work toward nurturing critical consciousness in university tutorials. We explore two case studies that occurred during our participatory, feminist, action research project which aims to have students collaboratively question and reflect upon their responses to critical theorizing in sociology. The scenarios that we analyze illustrate how students’ investments in dominant ideologies around gender relations and sexuality can lead to situations that are very challenging for TAs. Our analyses reveal that, particularly in tutorial settings where students vocalize their positions, TAs personally encounter a myriad of emotional, intellectual and interpersonal considerations in response to their students’ politics. These case studies emphasize the complexities involved when TAs are committed to both anti-oppressive pedagogy and critical ideologies.

Comments

This article was originally published in Radical Pedagogy, 9(1): Article 2.

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