FEMINIST EDUCATION AND FEMINIST COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY: EXPERIENCES FROM AN IRISH CONTEXT

摘要

This article describes experiences in an Irish context of education programs delivered in 2 communities, 1 based on class (a working class urban community) and 1 based on sexual orientation (an urban lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community). It aims to illustrate how feminist education can play an important role in feminist community psychology. Principles and practices of feminist education, or feminist pedagogy, have a great deal in common with feminist community psychology, but have been most often practiced in academic rather than in community settings. Feminist education in community settings provides a participatory and dialogical context in which knowledge can be cocreated from the bottom up. It allows for the exploration of diversity and the development of a political analysis that can further involvement in change at a number of different levels. Research on the feminist education programs described here indicates that participants were more likely to make changes in their lives, to obtain employment and/or further education, and to be more involved in community and other forms of action for change.