Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Book Description

In this book, bell hooks, one of America's leading black intellectuals, shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratic participation. Hooks advocates the process of teaching students to think critically and raises many concerns central to the field of critical pedagogy, linking them to feminist thought. In the process, these essays face squarely the problems of teachers who do not want to teach, of students who do not want to learn, of racism and sexism in the classroom, and of the gift of freedom that is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent colletction of essays.......2007-07-31

I couldn't put this book down! The essays were very thought provoking and interesting. The only section I skipped was the one on Paulo Freire. It was a little too dry from the beginning. I feel that the only people who won't like this book are the ones who choose to judge hooks on her word choice and try to read her words with their own connotations rather than the way she intended. Yes, she uses terms like "white supremecist" a lot. If you take that in the way we tend to use it in common language, you would think she believes that white people knowingly have some sort of racist agenda against other people; to draw that conclusion, you have to assume that she's just another black person blaming white people for their situations. It is clear that hooks is not at all playing a blame game, but is instead just calling it how she sees it. You have to read the book in its entirety to grasp the points she's trying to make. I also really liked how she included little stories from her own personal experience. She also attempts to explain her theory with support from events in history. Overall, I thought it was a great book. The vocabulary wasn't extremely difficult, so it could really be read by anyone, yet the points are very difficult to understand if you come to this book with preconceived ideas of how black women think or believe that your own life experience is the only truth. I would recommend this book to ANY college student, anyone interested in education, and also people who enjoy thinking. Definitely not a book for someone who doesn't want to have to think as they read.

Hooks and Hate Speech.......2005-09-27

We read this book in class at the graduate level and her ideas caused a great deal of controversy. Some loved her and others were sure she was radical with no agenda except for blaming others for her anger. I thought that her book was non-academic because it was not an academic piece of writing. Color or gender have nothing to do with it. I was not impressed by her ranting against white middle class educational values because she was a beneficiary of a scholarship that helped her achieve her education. Besides, at least in this book, she can't get past her anger to give real examples of transformative education in the classroom, except to assure the reader she practiced it. Not good enough. Playing the race-card, flagrant self-promotion and hate speech is not enough. Being a revolutionary requires more than a polemic against the things you don't like. I wasn't impressed.

The Road Is Long.......2005-07-12

If you teach--whatever you teach; wherever you teach--please consider reading this book. Some of these reviews demonstrate the urgency of cultural transformation. Transformation begins with dialogue among learners--in a field, by the side of the road, in an urban classroom, even in the academy where transformative learning is most deeply challenged.

Critical Analysis of Teaching to Transgress.......2005-04-04

Bell Hooks is an a highly achieved academic who overcame the oppression of a family that discouraged free thought (p. 60), being a black woman in a "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" (p. 71), and an education system wrought with oppression to teach a variety of courses as an adjunct in ivy league universities. Hooks states that education is the practice of freedom and challenges her students by aggressively opposing authorities, parents (p. 61), fraternities (p. 20), social norms, white oppression (p. 32), the English language, and white feminists, to name a few. By practicing engaged pedagogy, Hooks successfully rebels from the "banking system" of education that states students are to learn information provided by the professor. The system also-according to Hooks-encourages professors to remain uncontroversial as a means of ensuring security and tenure in their academic posts.
The following pages will investigate and critically review several positions proposed by Bell Hooks within the text, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.
Self Actualization
Though she does not define self actualization in her work, acknowledge the work of Abraham Maslow who spent a great deal of his career writing on the characteristics of self-actualized individuals, or mention the prerequisites to self-actualization (being devoid of psychopathology, using the extent of your natural abilities), Hooks refers to self-actualization and her disappointment in the lack of it with "the university" (p. 16). She states that as opposed to promoting self-actualization, academic institutions are instead havens for persons who are book smart and introverts-which Hooks describes as "unfit for social interaction" (p. 16). This addition of "necessary extroversion" for self-actualization is a dramatic and much needed contradiction to Maslow's study of self-actualized individuals, which shows self-actualized persons are generally more detached from others, as compared to the norm.
Regarding self-actualization still, though Maslow's subjects were profoundly non-religiously oriented, Hooks promotes an integration of spiritual and intellectual education, stating that separating spirituality from learning is to do a disservice and-in her educational experience-to find a professor that attuned to integrating his/her spiritual nature in teaching is a "rare treasure" (p. 17). She states further and brilliantly convolutes her point with a totally unrelated topic of dominance in the classroom: "Most of my professors were not the slightest bit interested in enlightenment. More than anything they seemed enthralled by the exercise of power and authority within their mini-kingdom, the classroom" (p. 17).
Though some white patriarchal academics maintain Hooks' work is non-academic solely because she is a black feminist (p. 71), Hooks proves otherwise by discovering the phenomenon of introverted academics becoming oppressive tyrants in the classroom.
In continued regard to dominance issues, they are exclusively presented as a characteristic of white males, as Hooks states:
It was particularly disappointing to encounter white male professors who claimed to follow Freire's model even as their pedagogical practices were mired in structures of domination, mirroring the styles of conservative professors even as they subjects from a more pedagogical standpoint (p. 17-18, italics added).
Safety
Hooks states regarding safety, "It is the absence of feeling safety that often promotes prolonged silence or lack of student engagement" (p. 39) and writes that with transformative pedagogy-which she encourages-the classroom is a democratic venue where all students have the obligation and privilege to participate. Though safety is important, a professor's focus should be on community, and a binding commitment to the common good (p. 40).
Community, according to Hooks promotes diversity, and students (as well as professors) need to spend time learning "different epistemologies" that are held by students, as well as "other ways of knowing." Reportedly, many of her students are dissatisfied with the time Hooks spends off topic during her classes and may state something to the degree "Why are we talking so much about feminism in a math class?" Hooks states that she has learned throughout the years to ignore these complaints, and that students who do not desire to talk about feminism in non-feminism related courses will realize it is good from them at a later time, and will often contact Hooks to tell her how right she is (p. 42).
Some additional interesting points by Hooks; who writes her text based completely on her experiences and reactions to others' works she has read that are based (I can confirm with many of them, Thich Nhat Hanh for example) completely on the reflective experiences of those authors, Hooks finds that her courses on feminism often go well except "those times when students abuse the freedom of the classroom by only wanting to dwell on personal experience" (p. 15).
Later, hooks criticizes white male students for valuing essentialist standpoints of logic, which oppress the "knowledge of experience" possessed by the minorities in the classroom (p. 81). It is stated voices from marginalized groups are given space to "speak from experience" only then the basis of experience is needed in a discussion. Instead, Hooks suggests that the "knowledge of experience" should be equal to any factual knowledge white male students possess. In addition, regarding the experiences of white male students-though white male students are preoccupied with objective knowledge-Hooks states:
The politics or race and gender within white supremacist patriarchy grants them their "authority" without their having name or desire for it. They do not attend class and say, "I think that I am superior intellectually to my classmates because I am white and male and that my experiences are much more important than any other group's." And yet their behavior announces this way of thinking about identity, essence, subjectivity.
These are very insightful points by Hooks, and her ability to read the minds of white students is compelling, trumped only by her ability to realize all white male students are homogenous in their perspectives of supremacy and dominance. Putting Hooks' tenets together in sum; white male students do not state that they are dominant even though they oppress, are attuned toward non-experiential objective knowledge, and incorrectly challenge minorities in the class who have "useful" experiential knowledge with their un-useful "white" experiential knowledge.
Lastly, such arrogance does not end with white males but transcends even to female white feminist academics, for Hooks states
Talking with academic feminists (usually white women) who feel they must either dismiss or devalue the work of Freire because of sexism, I see clearly how our different responses are shaped by the standpoint that we bring to the work (p. 50, italics added).
Language
Hooks most brilliant arguments are those regarding language. Hooks states, "This is the oppressor's language yet I need it to talk to you" (p.167), and repeats this line as a dramatic special-effect that is well placed in her academic literature (that is wrongly labeled by white supremacist researchers as "not academic enough").
English is the language of conquest and domination, and "it is difficult not to hear in standard English always the sound of slaughter and conquest" (p. 169) because the white people murdered Native Americans, according to Hook's knowledge of experience.
More profound than the claims Hooks makes is the information that Hooks omits from her writings. For example, black people are allowed to speak their native languages if they desire. It is not discouraged, and is comparatively equal to the situation of Caucasian men who's ancestors are indigenous to countries that do not speak English (France, Italy, Russia, etc.). Second, African persons do not speak one language that binds them as a group, but many different African languages. Third, the Americans that went into physical battle against the Native Americans are many years deceased. Fourth, English, the language of oppression, is not really spoken in America for English (from England) is significantly different than American English that this country speaks as its official language, and American English is constantly evolving/changing. Therefore, American English is different from the language used to exterminate Native Americans. Fifth, though it is true an academic submission written in Ebonics would not be accepted as appropriate, such may have to deal with the fact that Ebonics is promoted as a second language among its promoters-such as Russian or any other foreign language, which also would not be accepted in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published for English speaking readers. Sixth, if Ebonics is considered an ethnic dialect of English, it is not alone in being considered not appropriate for academic submission-for even white "hillbilly" or "country" dialects are not accepted as proper academic language. Seventh, regarding the "bounding limitations" (p. 171) of the English language, much research contests the notion that language can be "binding." For example, it was believed people speaking English could not understand snow to the depth that northern Native Americans can, for northern Native Americans have seven (approximately) words for snow, while the English language has only one. It was later found the additional words were descriptive, such as "wet snow," "soft snow," etc. Eighth, rap music, which according to Hooks "has become one of the spaces where the black vernacular is used to invite the dominant mainstream to listen-to hear-and, to some extent, be transformed" (p. 171) may not be embraced by everyone-not to oppress blacks but-because rap music is often blatantly violent, promotes hatred, greed, and sexual promiscuity. Also contributing may be the high incidence of rap music producers and performers becoming involved in illegal activity, or gang warfare. Ninth, not addressed by Hooks is that poets, musicians, and other writers often create and alter English words in their works, and this is considered acceptable-even encouraged. In fact, some commonly used words in the English language originated as "new" words in music and literature. Lastly, having one language that a nation understands and can communicate with together mutually may not be intrinsically oppressive, but liberating.
Conclusion
The 10 rebuttals above are not written as a sincere challenge to Hooks. Instead, they are a blatant "devils advocate" written to display how claims contrary to Hooks' positions are obviously incorrect. That stated, it is difficult for me to clearly see the truth of the situation, being an educated white male. After reading Hooks work Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, I am convinced of my oppressive white supremacist attributes; the domination, slaughter, and conquest of my native tongue; and of the uncontestable value of Hooks' experiential knowledge.

Essential for teaching freedom.......2004-08-17

This book is essential for faculty who believe in libratory education. When I got my first job as an instructor I read a few books on college teaching and they were fine for nuts and bolts like how to plan a syllabus. However, hooks writes about heart-matters that really affect teaching and learning like engagement, multiculturalism, theory, feminism, community, class, and eroticism.

For example, she discusses teaching which engages the learner (why is this taken for granted preK-12 but abandoned at grade 13?) and being a diverse teacher with diverse classes in a predominantly white male academy (if you're female, or not white, or not straight, or 'political', this is you), and other topics essential to understanding the undercurrents which happen every day in lectures across the country.

I must say that I am struck by the strongly negative reactions of some reviewers. For me this book was an oasis in the desert.

A Class Act: Changing Teachers Work, the State, and Globalisation (Garland Reference Library of Social Science, V. 1465.)

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A Class Act: Changing Teachers Work, the State, and Globalisation (Garland Reference Library of Social Science, V. 1465.)
Susan Robertson
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ASIN: 0815335784

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This volume discusses changes in views and attitudes about the work of teachers and how these sociological views and attitudes have asserted themselves in the last decade. The book is organized in three sections. The first lays a theoretical framework by addressing the notion of class and how it affects views of teachers' work. The second section puts the first section's theory into practice through an illustrative analysis of teachers' lives in America and in England. The final section focuses on the changes that have affected teachers' work in the 1990's and world over.

Speaking The Lower Frequencies: Students And Media Literacy

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Speaking The Lower Frequencies: Students And Media Literacy
WALTER R. JACOBS
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
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ASIN: 0791463958

Pedagogies of the Global: Knowledge in the Human Interest (Cultural Politics and the Promise of Democracy)

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Pedagogies of the Global: Knowledge in the Human Interest (Cultural Politics and the Promise of Democracy)

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ASIN: 1594512388

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The essays in this collection address questions raised by a modernity that has become global with the victory of capitalism over its competitors in the late twentieth century. Rather than erase difference by converting all to European-American norms of modernity, capitalist modernity as it has gone global has empowered societies once condemned to imprisonment in premodernity or tradition to make their own claims on modernity, on the basis of those very traditions, as filtered through experiences of colonialism, neocolonialism, or simple marginalization by the forces of globalization. Global modernity appears presently not as global homogeneity, but as a site of conflict between forces of homogenization and heterogenization within and between nations. Prominent in this context are conflicts over different ways of knowing and organizing the world. The essays here, dealing for the most part with education in the United States, engage in critiques of hegemonic ways of knowing and critically evaluate counterhegemonic voices for change that are heard from a broad spectrum of social, ethnic, and indigenous perspectives. Crucial to the essays' critique of hegemony in contemporary pedagogy is an effort shared by the contributors, distinguished scholars in their various fields, to overcome area and/or disciplinary boundaries and take the wholeness of everyday life as their point of departure.

Teaching Popular Culture: Beyond Radical Pedagogy (Media, Education and Culture)

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Teaching Popular Culture: Beyond Radical Pedagogy (Media, Education and Culture)
Howard
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Cultural Pedagogy: Art/Education/Politics (Critical Studies in Education and Culture)

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Cultural Pedagogy: Art/Education/Politics (Critical Studies in Education and Culture)
David Trend
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ASIN: 0897892577

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In recent years, debates over culture and education have entered the public consciousness as never before. Politicians, bureaucrats, and scholars have credited these endeavors with the capacity to influence matters ranging from public morality to national productivity. Trend examines points at which art and learning intersect in both traditional and nontraditional settings and offers a variety of alternatives for the construction of a new cultural pedagogy. He argues that we need to redefine concepts like "art," "literature," and "education," to integrate them more fully into our lives. On one hand, Trend uses a critical approach to examine how cultural work and pedagogy intersect within a range of discourses such as Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist and postcolonial. Yet on the other, he focuses on the use of specific examples of cultural practice within and outside the classroom to emphasize the importance of action as well as philosophy to bring about social change. Trend provides a theoretical overview of the ideological battles over texts and their discursive contexts and then analyzes how cultural education has evolved in such settings as the school, the university, and the community. He concludes with a discussion of pedagogy and democracy which suggests a range of possible resolutions.

Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (The Edge, Critical Studies in Educational Theory)

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First-Rate Work !
No future for corporation kids

Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (The Edge, Critical Studies in Educational Theory)

Manufacturer: Westview Press
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Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life

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First-Rate Work !.......1999-09-03

I feel sad because "Kinderculture" is the type of book that should be a bestseller or it should be a reference guide for experts who write books that aim for the layperson.

No future for corporation kids.......1999-05-25

This is a collection of essays on the theme that childhood is a creation of society and today it is the corporations who are constructing childhood.Topics examined include Disney movies,"educational" television,Beavis and Butthead,video games,television wrestling, Barbie, and Macdonald's.Children are shamelessly being exploited for profit with no consideration for their welfare.Graphic violence and sexism is promoted in many video games.The writers want to expose the hypocrisy and exploitation of the corporations who have taken over the minds of children.Macdonald's promotes a family friendly image, yet employees have to put the company well ahead of family interests.Never have a generation of children been subject to such intense exploitation, as this book shows.The writers hope that more parents and teachers question what is being done to the kids.

Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood, Second Edition

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Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood, Second Edition

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America is a corporatized society defined by our culture of consumerism. One of the groups most targeted by corporations is children and youth. TV, movies, radio, video games, toys, books, and fast food are all directed specifically at consumers under 18. By marketing directly to kids, advertisers have produced a "kinderculture." The first edition of Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood created a discourse that exposed the lack of understanding, education, and contextualization in this new children's culture. This new edition adds discussions on the icons that shape the values and consciousness of children, including hip-hop, Disney, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, professional wrestling, Nickelodeon, Weekly Reader, video games, Barbie, McDonald's, and the Home Alone movies. Through entertaining and insightful essays, contributors drawn from the fields of cultural studies, communications, and education analyze the profound effects and the pervasive influence of these corporate productions in a style parents, educators, and general readers will welcome. Arguing that the experience of childhood has been, with or without our consent, reshaped into something that is prefabricated, Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe reveal to readers the impact our prefab, purchasing-obsessed culture has on our children-and on our beliefs about childhood.

Postcritical Ethnography: Reinscribing Critique (Understanding Education and Policy)

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Postcritical Ethnography: Reinscribing Critique (Understanding Education and Policy)

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