The politics of knowledge : a critical theoretical approach to feminist epistemology and its educational implications

• Main Author: Todd, Sharon
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1992
• Subjects: Feminism and education; Feminist theory
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61314

Stemming from the dialectical concepts of critical epistemology developed by feminism and Critical Theory (specifically, the Frankfurt School), this thesis attempts to articulate the political dimension of knowledge and to demonstrate how this dimension is incorporated into the liberatory pedagogical theory of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux and various feminist authors. Hence the epistemological significance of domination and oppression is explored in relation to the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity held by critical epistemology. === In ultimately aiming at liberation from social oppression, both Critical Theory and feminist epistemology provide theoretical insights into the social construction of knowledge, the intersubjective character of knowledge and the depth psychological dimension of the knower. It is maintained that a synthesis of these insights can provide the groundwork for a liberatory educational theory based on the interrelation between experience and knowledge. Also, in dialectical interaction, a liberatory educational theory provides a means for actualizing the liberatory aim of critical epistemology.