What effect has feminism had on Canadian education since the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women, and to what end? Transforming Conversations explores post-commission feminist thought and action in the contexts of primary, secondary, post-secondary, and adult education. In this volume, teachers, professors, and educational administrators – many trailblazers themselves – document the historical experiences and outcomes of feminist action in university faculties of education, departments of educational administration, academic and professional societies, teachers’ unions, and community groups over the past five decades. They begin by exploring liberal feminism as an initial response to the historical context in which female educators spoke up for women’s rights and reshaped formal education systems. The contributors further explore how feminist theory was reconceptualized as women moved into formal leadership roles across education sectors. Last, contributors consider female educators at the intersection of gender and other systems of exclusion, such as race and class, despite ostensibly inclusive feminist theory that continues to be bounded by Western, colonial, neoliberal ideologies. Transforming Conversations considers the complex effects feminism has had and continues to have on Canadian education, acknowledges voices that have been marginalized, and invites readers to continue a transformative feminist dialogue.

Dawn Wallin is a professor in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan.

Dawn Wallin's profile page

Janice Wallace is professor emerita in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta.

Janice Wallace's profile page

"The strength of Transforming Conversations is its breadth of content, weaving across times and places to bring together a rich conversation on pedagogy, teaching, leadership, union activism, curriculum, collective action, and a multitude of identities that live in and across each of these categories of education. Carefully illustrating the many struggles and triumphs of feminism in education over the last five decades, it points to the continual need to speak out and create new stories." Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation

"Transforming Conversations is an important and timely contribution that sheds light on several hidden and undervalued perspectives and studies within the field of education in Canada. It is especially relevant given the current volatility of feminism in a global context." Cecilia Reynolds, Memorial University of Newfoundland