Feminist pedagogy and social change: the impact of the caribbean institute in gender and development

This paper examines the utility of a feminist pedagogical framework in establishing and organising the Caribbean Institute in Gender and Development (CIGAD), which is a biennial intensive gender and development training programme that has taken place in Barbados since 1993. To highlight the major impact that CIGAD has had in educating and empowering Caribbean men and women, the authors will first discuss the importance of feminist pedagogies in teaching, learning and activism in this programme by locating them within an intersectional postcolonial/transnational framework. Secondly, the authors consider the ways in which feminist pedagogy and praxis have been central in training women and men in the Caribbean region in gender analysis, helping them recognise the important role gender plays in development planning and policy as well as how it can be integrated into their work to improve their communities. Finally, through a feminist dialogic, participatory and experiential approach, the authors assess the impact that the CIGAD has had on participants, and community development training will be discussed based on the monitoring and evaluation of the exercise completed in 2014.