Narrow Gates and Restricted Paths: The Critical Pedagogy of Virginia Woolf

• Published in: Woolf studies annual 2014-01, Vol.20, p.54-81
• Main Author: Taylor, Rod C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Authors; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Brazilian literature; British & Irish literature; Critical theory; Criticism and interpretation; Education; Education, Higher; English literature; Freire, Paulo (1921-1997); Woolf, Virginia; Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941)
• ISSN: 1080-9317

According to Patricia Laurence, Woolf's response to fascism in Three Guineas centers on "a social and philosophical analysis that allows for more subtlety and casts itself into a future when changed relations between the sexes will lead to changes in human relations in general" (127). Should she perhaps bum the college to the ground, she wonders. Since higher education cannot help produce "good people," the guinea might be best used to purchase materials that will aid in its min.16 Woolf does finally commit to sending the first guinea to the women's college, with no strings attached, grudgingly admitting that in order to gain financial independence women must "follow the old road to the old end . . ." According to Giroux, such a pedagogy rejects classroom relations that relegate difference as an object of condemnation and oppression, and it refuses to subordinate the purpose of schooling to narrowly defined economic and instrumental considerations. [...]there will always be those who question whether educational spaces provide the best places to explore social problems or to attempt to answer questions like "How can we prevent war?" And perhaps, at best, education can only provide part of the answers to such longstanding cultural challenges that have put us on a seemingly circular path; nevertheless, I find Woolf's critical pedagogy a useful place to begin imagining a different journey, for us and for our students. 1 The image, a photograph taken by Chris Ware, shows three Girton College students entering the campus on their bikes.