Coalitional Pedagogy: Educating for Intersectional Social Justice

Abstract

Inspired by Paulo Freire, Mara Lugones, and other women of color coalitional feminists, this paper argues for coalitional pedagogy as an approach to teaching and learning about intersectional social justice. Such an approach seeks to decenter the teacher-as-leader model in favor of learning with as opposed to teaching for students (Freire); to remain committed to a problem-posing (Freire) approach that continuously asks the other question (Matsuda) and the bigger question (Morales); to embrace learning about each other as resistors (Lugones) as a necessary part of this mapping process; to provide space within the classroom for critical reflection on coalitional exercises so that students and teacher might embrace the relational transformation that results from this process; and to decenter the authority of canonical theory texts by inviting students to take part in the development of a primary text for the course through collaborative reflective journaling.

Feminism in Coalition: Thinking with U.S. Women of Color Feminism

“…This discussion was highly instructive and hopeful. For me, the section on coalitional pedagogy was especially exciting, and I am happy to see that Taylor has continued work on this topic (e.g., Taylor and Keating 2023).…”