World, Class, Women: Global Literature, Education, and Feminism. [Review]

Abstract

In response to many recent books in the area of gender studies and feminist pedagogy that call for the privileging of women’s experiences, celebration of caring, and respect for the nurturing life of the private home, Robin Truth Goodman issues a timely warning. She cautions her educationist audience of the many problems that result from upholding the private at the expense of the public. Unlike others who discuss privatization, she centers the conversation in the context of global capital and couches her reply in terms of critical pedagogy and Marxist analysis, revealing that the public is currently viewed as a “competitive private-business model” (p. 3) and calling for a re-envisioning. Goodman encourages feminist and educational theorists to conceive the private as integrated with the public, yet, perhaps fitting for the challenge she issues, she never fully spells out how this integrated public might look. Problematically, this can leave the average reader operating under traditional notions of both the private and the public and seeing them as directly opposed,... (preview truncated at 150 words.)

Department

Education

Publication Date

2004

Journal Title

Teachers College Record

Publisher

Teachers College Press

Document Type

Book Review

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