Feminist Critiques of Educational Research

In many ways, feminist critiques of educational research embody feminist critiques of social science research developed during the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s. A central idea is that much of what passes as “objective” scientific research can be categorized as “subjective” in the sense that it is patriarchal, androcentric, and ignores the experiences of people of color and/or the working class. Research projects that primarily investigate middle-class, white males and use biased assumptions based on a limited and singular viewpoint of a predominantly male perspective of the world are problematized for legitimizing and maintaining existing gender inequalities, exploitation, and oppression. The “malestream” perspective is usually framed as objective and used as the standard to which females, racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants are ...