Making space for positionality stories in higher education: using embodied feminist and critical pedagogies in practice

To reimagine criticality in higher education, we emphasise positionality in pedagogy. As educators, we argue there is value in critically engaging with who ‘we’ are, and why exposing our positionality is an important aspect of curating a learning environment based on critical feminist pedagogical principles. Positionality stories help students identify axes of power and contextualise learning with their indigenous knowing and with disciplinary learning. This allows educators to engage students in ‘principled resistance’ to neoliberal bureaucracies, who are set on commodifying the sector through destabilising opportunities in lieu of meeting targets. We argue education is the pursuit of transgressive learning that empowers students with skills and a mindset to transform their worlds beyond the classroom. These ideas have been rehearsed by critical, feminist pedagogues, and we extend the theory to consider how teachers also benefit from knowing each other and uniting in our commitment to transformation through education.