“A Feminist Approach to Introductory Geology Classes”

Jeffrey B. Noblett

NWSA ’96 Panel Presentation

Feminist Pedagogy for the Physical Sciences

 

The Colorado College Block Plan in which students take one course at a time, for three and one-half weeks, allows considerable flexibility in lecture, lab, and field aspects of science courses. Geology faculty typically spend three hours in lecture and three hours in lab daily, or take students on day-long to week-long field trips. Of many pedagogical techniques we have tried, the feminist critiques of science have led to a complete reorganization and re-thinking of how I teach both the 2-block Introductory Geology class and the 1-block Environmental Geology. The first part of the class is devoted to perspectives- from traditional philosophy of science to feminist critiques and ecofeminism. The “labs” contain paths of personal growth which I am comfortable teaching with the point being that before we save the world, we need to know who we are and how we make connections. Establishing validity of personal perspective and wide-open discussion in a science class significantly changes the willingness of students to participate throughout the class. Although the rocks and minerals don’t seem to be changed, reorganization into non-linear, non-dichotomous, non-hierarchical cycles (Earth Systems Analysis, Gaia Paradigm) shifts the class from an atoms-build-minerals-build-rocks-build-mountains tradition to a complex system with space and time scale variations (e.g. volcanoes explode instantaneously, effect the atmosphere for decades, recur on a century-scale and result from million-year plate tectonic processes; interacting with other phenomena at each scale). This is not a linear study. Placing humans into this system and understanding interactions through lab and especially field studies brings a feminist pedagogy into the sciences as an essential part of the scientific enterprise.