Competing Discourses of Gender and Power Relations: Complexities and Ambiguities in the Algerian Architecture Classroom

The objective of this investigation is to unveil male dominance assumptions and discourses of gender differentiations in the architecture classroom, in light of the possibilities for resistance and reinterpretation of the social practices. Adopting Feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis (FPDA), this study falls broadly into attempt to unveil the complex network of power relations and the role of gender stereotypes in the architecture classroom at the University of Hassiba Benbouali (Chlef). FPDA perspective views that individuals are seldom consistently positioned as powerful across all discourses within a given community of practice. My survey is based on FPDA which provides space for female students’ voices, which have been marginalized or silenced by discursive practices in the architecture classroom. This paper exhibits the complexities and the ambiguities of female experiences, giving space to female voices that were being silenced or marginalized by dominant discourses in the architecture classroom. I have identified five significant discourses in the architecture classroom and the findings report that students (both males and females) are simultaneously positioned as relatively powerless within certain discourses and as relatively powerful in others.