The aim of the paper is to introduce the method of journaling as a tool for non-hierarchical feminist pedagogy.

Feminist pedagogy as a part of critical pedagogy deconstructs traditional pedagogical practices and is based in following principles: 1) reformation of the relationship between teacher and student, 2) empowerment, 3) building community, 4) privileging voice, 5) respecting diversity of personal experience, and 6) challenging traditional views (Webb, Walker, Bollies 2004). Feminist teaching should offer mentoring and nurturing relationships with students across race, class, gender, regional origin and sexual identity lines (Fahs, Swank 2020). It bases the learning process in exploring one’s own needs, feelings, motivations, and ambitions (Felman 2001). Feminist pedagogy addresses the power imbalances present in educational institutions and strives to de-centre that power. It rejects the normative classroom dynamic, seeking to foster more democratic spaces functioning with the understanding that both teachers and students are subjects, not objects (Shrewsbury 1986). Students are encouraged to reject normative positions of passivity and instead to take control of their own learning.

However, these principles are difficult to implement in practice, and therefore, in addition to the ideological anchoring of feminist pedagogy, it is necessary to look for practical ways to achieve them. The paper presents an evaluation of the usage of the journaling method from this above-mentioned feminist perspective. An online course on gender was developed and tested within the project Alliance of Universities to Reinforce teacher training curricula to Outcast Radicalism and promote equality in Asian societies in cooperation with Nepalese and Indian universities. The original plan for a face to face course in India and Nepal was thwarted by the pandemic and we faced the challenge of designing a multicultural online course for 80 participants.

The method of journaling is based on personal structured and unstructured writing, structured analysis of that writing and sharing in small groups as well as the general forum. The journaling method avoided ethnocentric exportation of western/European notions of gender equality and created an environment in which a very diverse group of participants was able to build an online learning community. The group consisted of participants who had only a very basic understanding of the category of gender, as well as those who had studied gender studies at universities; there were participants with experience of rural areas where parents do not send girls to school, as well as elite schools where there is a lot of performance pressure on girls.

Experimental verification of the pedagogical method in practice. Participant observation and evaluation questionaire. Journal writing, or journaling, personal reflective writing: a simple, yet very effective tool for reflecting, processing and unravelling one´s thoughts, ideas, situations and even solutions. Journaling, unlike e.g. essay writing, is not writing to perform, but rather writing to learn, to process, to reflect, to understand. Through personal reflection it enables to understand and be compassionate with others, it is a key to understand inequalities and wider social processes in intersection with our own life situations and experience. We used following journaling methods that will be expained in details within the presentation: Free writing, the list of 100, dialogue, paralel scenarios, stepping stones.

The method of journaling working with everyone's own experience allowed for a non-hierarchical and non-exclusionary sharing of different perspectives and contexts and offered a deep learning experience that has become in the case of many a springboard for their own action in gender sensitive teaching. The participants' unique writing exercises and their analysis provided a very personal and presonalised opportunity to grasp the concepts of gender studies. It enabled them to understand the meaning and relevance of these concepts to their own personal and professional lives. In addition to the cognitive level of perception, it allowed them to work with them on an emotional level that is often neglected in the normal learning process. The method endorses feminist pedagogy principles and can be used for inclusive education in general.

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