Towards Innovative Teaching Pedagogies in Gender Research: A Review of a Gender Research Methods Class

Abstract

This commentary examines the teaching of research methods in Women
and Gender Studies in the Gender Studies Unit of the Institute of African
Studies, University of Ibadan. It interrogates how the course has increased
the awareness of students in the methods of conducting research and
how the research they conduct has implications on marginalized
populations. The course also highlights the need for a growing body of
knowledge that engages the experience of black women in Africa and
the African diaspora. The course draws the attention of students to the
agency of women through the reading and teaching of various research
methods in Gender Studies. An ethnographic approach is adopted using
participant observation in the course covering a period of one semester.
Also, a critical perspective is applied in discussing the particular
epistemological standpoint deployed by the course instructor. In other
words, the black feminist epistemology serves as an important strategy
for increasing global-minded consciousness of how a course in gender
research methods engages the agency of black women using Hip Hop
pedagogy.