AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHING AS A PRACTICAL POLITICAL ACTIVITY

This paper examines the notion of teacher as an agent of social change . The study participants were feminist university teachers. The study is important because it explored schools as political sites where teac hing and learning are understood in terms of democratic citizenship an d social justice. The theoretical base for the research was neo-Marxis t theory drawing specifically on the concept of teacher as 'transforma tive intellectual.'' The findings of the study suggest that the notion of transformative intellectual may rely too heavily on abstract, and highly rationalistic, constructions of ''empowerment' and ''dialogue' as transformative strategies. Moreover, the study underscores a need t o attend to the transformative intellectual as complicit in the produc tion, and legitimation, of certain kinds of knowledges, in the context of pedagogy as an ''interactive productivity.'' Additionally, 'transf ormative may not refer to a state, or characteristic, of an individual teacher but rather to a relationship between individuals in a group. Finally, the study points to the immense difficulties posed by the uni versity institution to the work of the would-be transformative intelle ctual.