Feminist Connectivity in Online Learning

• In Event: Critical Feminisms as Pedagogical Spaces for Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Purposes:
This proposal aims to trace how time is taken up in online learning through a feminist view of connectivity.

Theoretical framework:
We draw on feminist theory (hooks, 1994) to define relational connectivity as a lens for viewing online learning's nuanced and shifting sociocultural factors.

Modes of inquiry:
We utilize critical post-intentional phenomenology (Crit-PiP) to examine moments of feminist connectivity across timescales in online learning (Authors, 2023). Crit-Pip asserts a need to apply critically oriented theory with phenomena circulating through social spaces and places. We use critical discourse analysis focusing on timescales (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) to understand how power circulates through time in online learning and how access can be created within online learning structures.

Data sources:
Data sources include shared stories about relational connectivity in online learning. Utilizing critical discourse analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), we trace different timescales within students’ online learning experiences to explore how time circulates through the moments for learners and instructors in a way that makes space for learners to be present.

Results:
Findings highlight how a lens of feminist connectivity in online learning acknowledges students' different sociocultural experiences as related to time, allowing for more inclusive practices. Specifically, we contrast two stories (Waiting for the Storm and Moving Past Illness) of how time in classes does or does not allow for students to be present with their learning in a way that works for them.

Scholarly significance:
As designers of online learning recognize the complex sociocultural experiences of diverse learners, online pedagogy that acknowledges and promotes the fluidity of time for learners provides a new opportunity for connectivity of learners.

References:

Authors(2023).

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New
York, NY: Routledge.

Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. W. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. New York: Routledge.

Authors

• Stephanie Rollag Yoon, Minnesota State University - Mankato

• Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr, University of Minnesota

• Jana Lo Bello Miller, University of Minnesota

• Staci Gilpin, University of North Dakota