My first bell hooks: a lot of pedagogical theory which I didn't relate to that much, but from my peripheral understanding of higher ed from my experience 10 years ago today, shockingly relevant for something that was written in 1994. I can see the influence of her work and also the continued pushback to it. I'm excited to read some of her other more universal work, but this was a starting point that I'm very grateful for. ( )

I particularly enjoyed the dialogue around "building a teaching community," which prompted me to think critically about my own actions and how they reinforce or transgress against existing power structures. Overall this book did not feel revelationary to me but provided another perspective on power, on teaching, and on critical thinking. My biggest beef would be that I don't feel like I understand what she meant specifically by "liberatory practice" or "education as the practice of freedom." Does she mean that, by encouraging students in their development as whole human beings, you are freeing them from... something? Freeing them to be their best selves? Given how central that is to the book maybe I should have a better understanding after finishing it. Maybe the next time I encounter this idea, this book will have given me a good foundation for "getting it." ( )

I read this during graduate school - and found it to be one of the biggest influences in the way I thought about education. I am so grateful to Dr. K.J. for introducing me to this book, and this educational philosophy, which I still heartily embrace, sixteen years on. ( )

One of the best texts I have ever read. Certainly things to be critical about, but a book I would recommend to teacher, student, parent, or 'layperson' without hesitation. ( )

Every one of us has been a student, and most of us are also teachers (and still students) even if that isn't our job title. In this books hooks gives us the best kind of theory -- passionate, clear, centered, direct -- and shifts our ideas of what the classroom should be and do. While changing the dynamic of the classroom is at the core of the book, in these inter-related essays hooks gracefully and meaningfully weaves in personal experience, trusted sources, race, class, gender, regionalism, and history. While her focus is on the college classroom (and frequently that mid-90s women's studies classroom that is so close to my heart), her lessons apply to parents, librarians, teammates, committee members, and more. And if you are an actual classroom teacher? Then, my friend, let me buy you a copy of this book. ( )

This is the first book of hooks' that I've read—a collection of stand-alone essays in which she reflects on the concept of pedagogy as liberation. Essay collections are almost always a mixed bag and there are some in here that didn't work for me—the one that's structured as a dialogue between her and her writing pseudonym, or the rather uncomfortable one on eros in the classroom (that one needed a lot of teasing out and consideration of agape, philia, storge, and a hell of a lot more nuance and acknowledgement of the power differentials and potentials for abuse within what she's advocating). Yet there are other essays here which are powerful and (sadly) still relevant more than twenty years after the collection was first published. Definitely recommended for those doing work in the college classroom. ( )

This is my first introduction to bell hooks's writing. It's her work on liberation pedagogy, structured as stand-alone essays. There was plenty of food for thought. Especially useful for me in the health disparities curriculum I help teach to high school students every summer. ( )

"Confronting one another across differences means that we must change ideas about the way we learn; rather than fearing conflict we have find ways to use it as a catalyst for new thinking, for growth." -113

I am totally in love with bell hooks. Teaching to Transgress was my reading on the train; back and forth on the way to work, where I am more of a teacher than I have ever been. I especially appreciated "Confronting Class," and the reassurances that someone like hooks is thinking about education and sharing her trials and goals. ( )

Just reread this book very thoughtfully and carefully in anticipation of a writing/thinking project this summer. bell hooks is amazing. ( )

It has been a while since I read bell hooks. I first encountered her when I was learning to teach writing as a Master's student. I remember loving her work.

It's only recently that I have been reading the works of the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, and have found that his way of thinking resonates with mine.

When I picked up Teaching to Transgress tonight and began to read, it was easy to slip into hooks's rhythm; she is another writer for whom I have an awesome respect and would love to meet one day. Then I turned a page to discover that her work has been informed by Hanh's.

That explains why she works for me, too. Engaged pedagogy and and engaged Buddhism must fill some kind of need I have.

To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. The learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.

In chapter one, hooks points out that Thich Nhat Hanh's engaged Buddhism is practice in conjunction with contemplation, which is similar to Paulo Friere's "praxis" or combined action and reflection.

*I personally interpret the words "spiritual" and "soul" in a non-theistic way.

A truly transformative book. ( )

(Published in the Journal of Community Literacy).

Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope is a collection of essays, testimonials and interviews that strive to bring about a holistic union of theory and praxis for teachers and activists seeking practical wisdom. In Teaching Community, African American feminist scholar bell hooks continues the project she began in her 1994 book, Teaching to Transgress. Her writing reflects the constant struggle to achieve an effective integration of educational theory and practice.

Inspired by Paulo Freire’s philosophy of radical pedagogical praxis for consciousness-raising and spiritual growth, both books are written from a standpoint of genuine engagement with the pain, love, and hope of the communities served. Although hooks does not provide a specific definition of community in Teaching Community, she relies on the vision of activists and humanists such as Paulo Freire, Henri Nouwen, and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who conceptualized community “as a world who would bond on the basis of shared humanness” and impel us to reach out to others (35). This caring for each other, then, is a critical element in creating community. Moreover, in Teaching Community, hooks insists that building community requires from us “a vigilant awareness we must continually do to undermine all […] the socialization that lead us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination” (36). The process of unlearning behaviors of domination such as racism and sexism is difficult and often painful, but it is, as well, an affirmation of the essential goodness and humanity in all of us.

Although she is a rigorous scholar, hooks is known for the absence of citations in most of her work. She explains in Teaching to Transgress that this practice is “motivated by the desire […] to reach as many readers as possible in as many locations” (71). There are other ways in which hooks challenges traditional academia with her vision. Teaching Community challenges the oppression inherent in a “banking system of education.” Building upon Freire’s vision, hooks challenges the teacher-centered system that positions students as passive recipients of knowledge rather than engaged learners. hooks explains that zero-sum games among students, (e.g., competition for strictly rationed grades) promote a “competition rooted in dehumanizing practices of shaming, of sado-masochistic rituals of power” which “stand in the way of community” (131). hooks offers, instead, an alternative vision. In order to create a learning community that fosters mutual recognition and respect, we must begin by envisioning a common goal of building foundations that cultivate openness and trust. hooks explains that when teaching critical skills, shared underpinnings of respect and trust allow students to learn the difference between “trashing” other individuals or subject matters and offering a careful critique (136). In other words, community-building allows students to engage in a mutual commitment to listen, recognize differences, argue, and make peace. Furthermore, hooks argues that working to de-center power is primordial in a democratic classroom and that this “dislocation is the perfect context for free-flowing thought that lets us move beyond the restricted confines of a familiar social order” (21). The hierarchical structure of most universities rewards students’ obedience and makes them fear questioning the system. In her prior work, hooks explains that she requires her students to make verbal contributions in the classroom and recognize the value of each individual voice. In Teaching Community, hooks expands on that notion. Relying on lessons learned in the civil rights activism of her youth, she calls for a transition from a dominator model to a partnership model, declaring that “conversation is the central location of pedagogy for the democratic educator” (44). Thus students might speak openly, engaging as responsible partners in their own learning process. hooks recounts the experience of having white male students who were afraid of accepting challenges to the white patriarchal supremacist models they had always known. Yet the voicing of fears accompanied their growing willingness to challenge and transform these dominating structures (48).

Though acknowledging that authoritarian practices in institutions creates fear and self-censorship that often silences the teacher, hooks reminds educators of the ethical imperative of teaching for a practice of freedom. In struggling against an ideology of domination, then, students and teacher become partners in the project of building community. Throughout Teaching Community hooks remains adamant, however, of the necessity of maintaining high academic standards for her students, and she calls for the teachers to serve students by helping them to achieve their potential as well as helping them understand and overcome their limitations.

One of the ways in which she struggles to make theory more useful and inclusive is by integrating anecdotes, interviews, and testimonials into her writing and teaching practice. Throughout her career, hooks has fought to challenge uninspiring dominant teaching practices with an integration of feminist theory and student-participatory learning. Teaching Community is, above all, an attempt to open spaces for creative dialogue in the classroom. While such spaces may feel de-centering and “unsafe” for some students, insofar as their lifelong assumptions are challenged, a committed teacher recognizes the benefits of this approach. hooks advocates Mary Grey’s concept of prophetic imagination, which hooks describes as a commitment to “a fully public imagination” in which “what must be takes priority over what is” (195-196). An oppressive culture of domination has made us all afraid, and in hooks words, “we need to laugh together to make peace, to create and sustain community” (196). Although teaching for community should be a joyous undertaking, hooks still reflects on her painful experiences as a student of color in an integrated educational system that privileges a white identity. Her reflections draw attention to the ways in which white supremacist thinking is embedded in the language of every day life, harming the self-esteem of students of color and other minorities.

In Teaching Community we learn strategies for raising challenges and managing conflict in the classroom, since “part of maturing is learning how to cope with conflict” (152). In hooks’ interview with Ron Scapp, a progressive educator, Scapp describes strategies of dealing with classroom conflict. On the issue of white male supremacy, Scapp, a white male, argues that once trust is established in the classroom, dominant positions must be respectfully challenged—in his case, self-challenged—by “pausing,” a practice of respect that listens to and acknowledges other people’s feelings, demonstrating at the same time deference and vulnerability to rejection as a way of repudiating white male privilege (114).

Not one to shy away from controversial topics, hooks also recognizes that there are often sexually-charged encounters between teachers and students—“[t]he erotic is always present—always with us” (155)—and advocates an acknowledgment of the erotic spark so that it can be used in constructive ways in the classroom.

In her preface bell hooks asks whether “there really is an audience of teachers and students wanting to engage the discussions about difference and struggle in the classroom. […] Would college professors want to read this book?” (ix). I believe there is an audience: Teaching for Community is a wake-up call to the academic world, providing a realistic vision of integrating academia and civil society, community and college. This is where hooks vision is sorely needed, as the academic world is increasingly attacked by ideologues who consider the university—especially the Humanities—as irrelevant. Many educational institutions are burdened with hierarchical structures that seem more often concerned with maintaining an entrenched status quo than with the quality of their education. In other words, academia is increasingly perceived by many outside its walls as alienated from the world that surrounds it, lacking an interest in reaching out to communities in need.

hooks addresses this lack of community feeling among students and teachers in our educational systems, and also decries “the loss of feeling of connection and closeness with the world beyond academy” (xv). Recognizing her teaching as a political project, hooks calls for teachers to create community and to “recover our collective awareness of the spirit of community that is always present when we are truly teaching and learning” (p. xv). Calling for action, hooks joins Peggy McIntosh in arguing that expressing disapproval of a system is not enough to change it (190). What else, then, can educators do? By heeding hooks’ call, academia and community activists can move beyond the walls that separate us and reach towards each other, finding ways in which we are connected through shared values. In other words, the world of academia can, in Ron Scapps words, “pause” and listen to the needs and concerns of the students and people around us. Teachers can be witnesses, advocates, and activists. Educators and educational institutions should find ways to serve the marginalized and the poor and to create partnerships with communities and community activists. This is the how we create community.

Besides arguing for the need to do more than engage our college students in critical thinking, hooks offers practical advice by calling for educators and activists to “talk to people who do not think as we do,” to take teaching to “churches, bookstores, homes where folks gather” and never to lose sight of the transformative and emancipating powers of learning (xi). Teaching Community is largely autobiographical, making the personal political, but by making her work accessible to everyone, hooks’s work embodies the very ethos of intellectual flourishing and community-building that she champions, managing to reach ever broader and diverse audiences in order to create community and better disseminate her radical feminist theory.

Works Cited:
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. NY: Routledge, 1994.
hooks, bell. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. NY: Routledge, 2003 ( )