Bell Hooks:
Teaching to Transgress, Education as the Practice of Freedom
Union of mind, body and spirit
‘The idea of the intellectual questing for a union of mind, body, and spirit had been replaced with notions that being smart meant that one was inherently emotionally unstable and that the best in oneself emerged in one’s academic work.’ (page 16)
Learning and life
‘There are times when I walk into classrooms overflowing with students who feel terribly wounded in their psyches (many of them see therapists) yet I do not think that they want therapy from me. They do want an education that is healing to the uninformed, unknowing spirit. They do want knowledge that is meaningful. They rightfully expect that my colleagues and I will not offer them information without addressing the connection between what they are learning and their overall life experiences.’ (page 19)
Necessity of vulnerability
‘Professors who expect students to share confessional narratives but who are themselves unwilling to share are exercising power in a manner that could be coercive.’ (page 21)
Getting rid of old hierarchies of knowledge
‘Deconstruction of old epistemologies’ (page 29)
Conflict necessary to real multi-cultural setting
‘When we try to make culture an undisturbed space of harmony and agreement where social relations exist within cultural forms of uninterrupted accords we subscribe to a form of social amnesia in which we forget that all knowledge is forged in histories that are played out in the field of social antagonisms.’ (Peter McLaren, page 31)
‘We cannot despair when there is conflict. Our solidarity must be affirmed by shared belief in a spirit of intellectual openness that celebrates diversity, welcomes dissent and rejoices in collective dedication to truth.’ (page 33)
Not safety, community instead
‘Many students, especially students of color, may not feel at all ‘safe’ in what appears to be a neutral setting. It is the absence of a feeling of safety that often promotes prolonged silence or lack of student engagement.’ (page 39)
‘Rather than focussing on issues of safety, I think that a feeling of community creates a sense that there is shared commitment and a common good that binds us.’ (page 40)
‘one way to build community in the classroom is to recognize the value of each individual voice.’
Page 40
Cultural codes in the classroom
‘Cultural codes’, ‘Often, professors and students have to learn to accept different ways of knowing, new epistemologies, in the multicultural setting.’ (page 41)
Necessity of explaining philosophy
‘In the transformed classroom there is often a much greater need to explain philosophy, strategy, intent than in the ‘norm’ setting.’ (page 42)
Acknowledging pain of change
‘Degree of pain involved in giving up old ways of thinking and knowing and learning new approaches…I include recognition of it now when I teach.’ (page 43)
‘native informant’ (page 43)
No native informants
Students ‘are told to make suggestions of material that can be used. This often places an unfair burden on a student. It also makes it seem that it is only important to address a bias if there is someone complaining.’ (page 44)
Value of experience
Value does not come from the ‘authority of experience but rather from the passion of experience’ (page 90)