Feminist Pedagogy: implications and practice

Abstract

Rosemary Joyce’s research in gender archaeology and archaeologies of the body and identity have not only impacted on our interpretations of the body and identity in the past, but have contributed vastly to our understandings of epistemologies of academic practice, particularly with relation to addressing the androcentric and hetero-normative frameworks in which the disciplines of archaeology and anthropology have traditionally operated. Furthermore, through reassessing ways of viewing, researching, and interpreting the past, Joyce and her contemporaries have changed the face of archaeological theory, method and practice, pre-empting current theoretical concepts (for instance, Ingold’s ‘meshworks’ and Hodder’s ‘entanglement’ theories as lenses for interpreting the past (and the present)) by over twenty years. This paper explores Joyce’s contribution in redressing our epistemologies, which influence our understanding of the past, and impact on archaeological research and practice. For instance, recognition of multiple narratives and the democratization of the archaeological voice have created new understandings and interpretations of our archaeological record. Taking a case study of an archaeological field school and research excavation, the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, this paper explores how an approach grounded in feminist ways of seeing the world, and a democratization of communication, impact on student learning, both in the field and the classroom, and ultimately, in our archaeological interpretations and understanding. Crucially, this paper also highlights that our discipline has some way to go in realizing the foundations laid by Joyce and her contemporaries.