Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy Within/In The Postmodern

by Patti Lather

The ways in which knowledge relates to power have been much discussed in radical education theory. New emphasis on the role of gender and the growing debate about subjectivity have deepened the discussion, while making it more complex. In Getting Smart , Patti Lather makes use of her unique integration of feminism and postmodernism into critical education theory to address some of the most vital questions facing education researchers and teachers.

Genres: Feminism, Education, Academic

236 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 1991

Reviews

[Anne McLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard Lather speak at a conference and decided that Getting Smart would be a good place to start getting better acquainted with postmodernism. I'd found too much of the academic writing associated with postmodern theory to be dense and stylized. I kept wanting to grab the writer and ask, "What is it you're trying to SAY?"

While Getting Smart isn't exactly easy reading, it is more accessible that a lot of "postie" material. Lather positions herself theoretically as a poststructuralist/feminist/ neoMarxist and explains how that all works. I'd spent too much time with critical theory to be quite ready to give up emancipatory missions in education and was happy to find critical theory doesn't hold a monopoly on them. Oh, and my advisor's adviser Michael Apple of the University of Wisconsin wrote the books introduction.

I'm having a heavy duty writing semester here which is likely to be reflected in My Books. I'll turn back into my novel-guzzling self in May with some not-serious-at-all beach reading....

[Nicole Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the pleasure taking a graduate class that includes talks with Lather, whose thoughts are truly revolutionary to the inseparable fields of education and research. This text is an essential read, but a few of my classmates and I are concerned with Lathers centering of feminism which reads to us as a silence on race. A necessary read, as long as researchers ‘situate’ the text within the white feminism of the time. Looking forward to reading her later texts and seeing how her work progresses!

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I need to go back to this a few more times to really pull out what I need from it. I just appreciate an alternative way of trying to tackle the task of authority and writing and research, especially as they pertain to teaching, and on top of that teaching with an awareness and sensitivity to both power and political/social action. Very valuable if not (necessarily) rather dense and academic and seemingly elitist...

[Christina Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has an education praxis bent. But, hey, Lather is just awesome and always provides sound, practical guidance to what can be some very abstruse and convoluted theory.