Case 1: Re-Evaluating Knowledge Systems in West Africa

The first case of how feminist pedagogy serves as a praxis in online geography courses to showcase marginalized voices is that of West Africa, where literacy has long been misrepresented in traditional academic texts. Geography textbooks often instruct students that illiteracy rates south of the Sahara are the highest in the world, yet these metrics rely on incomplete indices that do not include all forms of African knowledge systems (Barton & Ngom, 2022). Western society’s scholarly understanding of sub-Saharan Africa was derived primarily from the written records of colonialists, a corpus of work that gave the impression that Africans did not possess written languages of their own. This historical notion of language helped to perpetuate the false premise that only oral traditions existed in sub-Saharan Africa, a prevailing attitude that has made centuries-old traditions of producing knowledge invisible. This includes the erasure of scripts such as African Ajami, modified Arabic scripts that have been used since the 10th century to record the everyday interactions of many African communities south of the Sahara (Barton & Ngom, 2023, p. 151).

Today Ajami documents—both historical and contemporary archives—are ubiquitous across West Africa and have been uncovered in both private and public spaces (Barton & Ngom, 2022). Many West Africans received their formative instruction in Quranic schools rather than colonial institutions where they acquired both Ajami and critical numeracy skills. Yet, because literacy in the region is equated with proficiency in Arabic or Latin-based languages, these forms of knowledge continue to go unrecognized. It is estimated that some 80% of Hausa speakers in Nigeria—including men and women—can both read and write Ajami, yet these scripts are excluded from public schools and do not count in literacy statistics (Barton & Ngom, 2023). One consequence is that language data and infographics for Nigeria, Senegal, and Guinea negate the millions of Africans and their everyday spoken and written languages of Wolof, Mandinke, Hausa, and Pular (Figure 12.1). Corresponding maps of illiteracy are also regularly included in geography textbooks and on websites for global development agencies, serving to reproduce an inaccurate view of rich Africa’s knowledge systems.

With this historical context in mind, I employ feminist pedagogy in conjunction with story- and web-mapping software in my online geography course to help undergraduate students better understand to what extent African literacy has been undervalued and misrepresented in cartographic form and to subvert these colonial cartographies by enabling students to create more inclusive cartographies of language systems in West Africa. The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is the major supplier of GIS (geographic information systems) and web-GIS software, and its open-source mapping tools allow scholars, students, educators, and the public to embed photos, videos, and audio into maps to tell remarkable stories of places. Story maps give traditional maps more meaning, and they generate excitement about issues, particularly for undergraduates who often require interactive pedagogical techniques to enliven the online classroom.

My course assignment utilizes Ajami metadata to build base maps that feature the locations of these endangered archives and then compares them against existing cartographies of literacy found within traditional textbooks. This evolving, feminist pedagogical approach aligns with the age-old motto in geography, “map or be mapped,” and it provides a cautionary note about the role that colonial cartographers once played in demarcating boundaries within Indigenous territories during the age of imperialism. Most geography students have been taught about the Scramble for Africa, in which the continent was invaded, annexed, and colonized by seven of Western Europe’s great powers. Likewise, textbooks feature “literacy maps” for the continent that consistently exclude the presence of traditional African scripts such as Ajami. The story maps that my students create in class provide a springboard that leads to larger discussions about how our knowledge of world regions is generated (colonial records) and reified (maps and textbooks). This intersectional module culminates in a conversation about how not only to represent literacy better in traditional textbooks but also to be inclusive of other knowledge systems that have been ignored in academic discussions (hooks, 1994).

Case 2: Just Sustainability in the Arabian Gulf

The second case of how feminist pedagogy is employed in the online geography classroom to help amplify the narratives of under-represented communities is that of the Arabian Gulf, where I focus on the social justice dimensions of large-scale, sustainability-themed development projects. Landmark work by Julian Agyeman (2005, 2013) provides an excellent framework for understanding “just sustainability,” which claims that, if we wish to understand sustainability, our focus must be on both human quality and the natural environment. Nordhaus and Shellenberger (2004, p. 12) have argued further that Western-based sustainability movements often fail to recognize racism, sexism, and classism as their personal responsibility. Yet a truly sustainable approach is one in which wider questions of social needs, economic opportunities, and gender disparities are integrated fully into solutions. A presupposition endures within some spaces that we are saving the world for everyone equally, a notion that absolves us from issues related to equity and justice (Agyeman, 2008). The Arabian example allows students to interrogate notions of what counts as a green initiative, how such projects are socially constructed, and who the winners and losers are in these development efforts. It illustrates that, for green initiatives to be effective, they must take into account the specific needs of vulnerable populations, including both female and male guest worker populations.

Edward Said, noted scholar of Orientalism and the Middle East, once argued that it was only a “slight overstatement to say that Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists” (1978, p. 44) and that very little of the detail, human density, and passion for Arab-Muslim life has entered the awareness of even those whose profession is to report on the Arab world. His writing continues to resonate strongly in the field of online geography education, where we are fascinated by cultural history and energy resources but prone to generalizations about local politics and practices. One theme often ignored, however, is the impact of large-scale, sustainability-themed projects in the Arabian Gulf, such as offshore desalination plants, green hotel complexes, themed amusement parks, and luxury tidal golf courses. Learners are intrigued by the region’s enormous wealth set against a landscape of enduring development, yet they seldom are given opportunities to consider the costs of human capital involved in the physical construction process (Al-Waqfi & Al-Faki, 2015). I invoke feminist pedagogical tools to challenge the Arabian Gulf’s positionality as a sustainable blueprint for other states.

Sustainable development in the Arabian Gulf sheds light on the challenge of environmental problems that can be difficult to tackle because of their connections to other cultural or social issues. In my online geography class, we focus on the plight of guest workers who migrate to the Gulf Cooperation Council region in order to work in “low-skilled” jobs such as construction, hospitality, and domestic help (Malecki & Ewers, 2007). These migrants contribute substantially to the development of destination states such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Qatar and are given opportunities to send remittances to their families in the Philippines, Nepal, India, and Pakistan (Adams, 2006). Yet, despite the advantages on both sides, migrants overwhelmingly face poor working conditions in their host nations, including forced labour, sexual and emotional abuse, and breach of contracts despite existing legal reforms (Human Rights Watch, 2019). In this vein, I have designed a collaborative lesson plan that enables students to position themselves as guest workers in the UAE to empathize with migrant communities tasked with building the desert.

The first part of the Arabian Gulf lesson teaches students that the geographic scale of expatriates currently employed in the region as a percentage of the total population is extraordinarily high. In 2012, 80%, 90%, and 62% of the populations of Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait respectively were foreign born, whereas less than 2% of the populations of nearby Afghanistan and Iran were non-nationals (Human Rights Watch, 2019). Since geography is a spatially oriented discipline that requires data visualization, we use the online International Population Database drop-down menu to illustrate firsthand these stark demographics using “age-sex” structures (Figure 12.2). These demographic structures reveal two key processes in a visually sobering format: (1) the bulge in the male population cohort for ages 24–44 is a direct product of male guest worker migration to the Arabian Gulf; (2) migrant workers constitute the population majority yet are not afforded the same rights and privileges as residents or nationals (Fargues, 2006).

The second part of the lesson plan provides students with online access to Human Rights Watch reports that detail current migrant worker conditions for the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait (Human Rights Watch, 2009). These documents elucidate, using first-hand vignettes and personal accounts, how guest workers—particularly women—are incredibly vulnerable to the whims of their host or receiving nations. The kafala or visa-sponsorship system ties migrant workers to their employers, and those who can leave face punishment for absconding, including fines, prison terms, or deportation (Kapiszewski, 2006). The UAE’s labour laws have also long excluded female domestic workers—who face a range of abuses, including unpaid wages, confinement to the house, and workdays up to 21 hours—from legal protections. An online discussion board gives students the opportunity to compare how feminist pedagogy aligns with Agyeman’s theory of just sustainability, which has led to rich online threads regarding intersectionality (Evans & Maddress, 2018).

Finally, the lesson concludes with a second online discussion of how allies operating within Gulf states have put in place more just, equitable conditions for non-nationals tasked with building the desert. In this part of the module, I invoke the personal as part of my feminist pedagogy, providing examples of my field research in the Arabian Gulf region. Although guest worker camps outside cities such as Doha and Dubai have been criticized for providing cramped and insufferable living quarters that spatially segregate workers from the rest of affluent society, some groups are getting it right. I share photos and vignettes of architectural work at Qatar University, where container ships and community-based pods with water-recycling plans and green spaces (Meinhold, 2010) have been built to provide more humane living conditions for migrant communities. I conclude with a reflective discussion of how the Arabian Gulf case mirrors migration processes in our own communities. We discuss how the Arabian Gulf case can provide a glimpse of a region grappling with social justice issues, not unlike those facing immigrants in the United States (Najib & Hopkins, 2020). Cultivating spirited discussion and debate is at the core of feminist teaching and scholarship. Feminist teaching regularly involves hands-on activities, group-based discussions, and collaborative work to explore the nuances and intersectional complexities of environmental issues, not just women’s issues (Pownall, 2022).

Case 3: Giving Voice to African Descendants in Mexico

The third case of how feminist pedagogy can be employed in an online geography classroom focuses on Mexico, where I use data from the 2015 Intercensal Survey and 2020 Census, photography in Afro-Mexican communities, and fieldwork in Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Mexico City in order to give voice to Afro descendants who have left a large cultural footprint despite their presence being undervalued by the state. I use these resources to teach students how, beginning in the late 1500s, thousands of slaves were ferried from West Africa to work in the sugarcane haciendas, cattle estancias, and mines of New Spain, and by the 17th century Afro descendants were said to outnumber the Europeans who preceded them (Vasquez & Unduragga, 2018). Yet, despite their representation in Mexico, it was not until the intercensus of 2015 that Mexico quantified and recognized Afro descendants in its official records and cartographies. In total, these census results (INEGI, 2021) highlight how 1.16% of the country’s population declared itself Afro descendant, with the largest concentrations registered in the states of Guerrero (6.5%), Oaxaca (4.9%), and Veracruz (3.3%).

In online discussions, we explore how these extremely conservative census results do not necessarily match the African presence on the ground, where African art, dance, and forms of resistance are evident across Mexico’s diverse landscapes. The class unravels the case of southern Veracruz, home to “Jarocho culture,” a term that refers to the mixture of Indigenous and Black populations and the everyday practices that these cultural groups embody to this day. And in Yanga and Coyolillo, Veracruz towns founded by freed slaves in the 17th century, we explore first-hand the cultural manifestations of Afro descendants by way of cuisine, music, and agriculture. At its core, this module works to address the invisibility of African heritage in Mexico through census maps, photography, and embedded fieldwork. We discuss how Mexican academia was slow to address Afro-Mexican issues because of its focus on the nation’s Indigenous populations, though that is not true today given the scholarship conducted across the country (Vasquez & Undurraga, 2018, p. 44).

By invoking personal narratives in my feminist pedagogy, I am also able to highlight the importance of geographic and spatial connections that link different parts of the world (Domosh & Seager, 2001). In online lectures, I include local narratives of the challenges facing West Africans—water scarcity, climate change, land dispossession, and racism—and how they play out in Afro-Mexican communities such as Coyolillo. I use a discussion board to show how long-standing political and ecological issues have been duplicated on the other side of the Atlantic, but much like in Africa local activists continue to lobby for recognition and change. I also incorporate the work of Hector Quintanar, a Veracruz-based scholar who has used the power of photography to help centre people of African descent and to put Afro-Mexican rituals and traditions at the centre of the debate. Students use discussion posts to highlight how Quintanar gives a “voice” to people of African descent in Xalapa, Oaxaca, and Veracruz, leading to discussions of intersectionality south of the border (Figure 12.3).

Discussion

New case studies from communities around the globe provide an efficacious approach to teaching feminist concepts. The use of personal narratives from a variety of fieldwork settings can expose students to intersectional perspectives and allow them to have uncomfortable conversations within comfortable online learning environments (Collingwood et al., 2012). Through the use of storytelling and online mapping tools, undergraduates can learn about under-represented voices in grassroots developmental and sustainable initiatives without traditional, first-hand experiences in the field. Although such narratives illustrate the challenges facing underserved communities, these cartographies also showcase community resilience in the face of environmental change. Case studies, grounded in feminist pedagogy, can focus successfully on helping undergraduates to subvert dominant discourses about marginalized peoples not only as targets of larger structures but also as agents of change in their own right (Light et al., 2015). Feminist pedagogy—given its liberatory, inclusive approach—can serve as a useful tool for all educators when it is coupled with intersectionality.

Key Takeaways

• The use of feminist pedagogy in online geography courses emphasizes several dynamic, evolving, and interrelated themes, including sustainability.
• An intersectional feminist framework combined with case studies allows students to understand better the role of marginalized peoples.
• The use of narratives, discussions, and mapping tools helps students to decipher the structures that shape society and provide ways to resist them.

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