Can the Feminist Subject Be an Object of Education? On Feminist Theories of Relation and Institutions ; Le sujet du féminisme peut-il faire l'objet d'une éducation ? Essai sur les théorisations féministes de la relation et de l'institution
This thesis examines and seeks to resolve some paradoxes in feminist conceptions of education. Dominant paradigms in first- and second-wave French feminism conceptualize education in ways that discount one of its fundamental aspects: either its social or its individual nature. While first-wave liberal feminism tends to promote a form of educational individualism, second-wave materialist feminism only considers education through the lens of socialization. Both paradigms fall prey to substantialism because they reify either the individual or society, and thus forget that the two stand in relation to each other. Contemporary Anglo-Saxon feminist pedagogies avoid these symmetrical pitfalls thanks to a relational conceptualization of education. Starting from a definition of consciousness as relation, these theories conceptualize "consciousness raising" as a dialectics between individual consciousness and collective consciousness. In this perspective, the feminist subject is neither the individual woman as rights-bearer nor the social class of women as produced by domination. Instead, the feminist political subject is defined by a specific relation to the condition of women. Nevertheless, subjectivist tendencies within feminist pedagogies reveal that building this relation requires rethinking educational institutions; otherwise feminist pedagogy can become a depoliticized practice. Because educational institutions contribute to producing the hierarchical division between productive and reproductive labor, they must be radically transformed. Such work can be done through a political project of care at the institutional level. ; Les principaux paradigmes qui se déploient dans l'histoire de la pensée féministe française portent une conceptualisation de l'éducation qui se fait aux dépens de l'un ou l'autre des deux termes que sont l'individuel et le social. Qu'il s'agisse du féminisme libéral « première vague » avec sa grille de lecture individualiste ou du féminisme matérialiste « deuxième vague » avec son ...