Teaching To Transgress

216 pages

Published Nov. 18, 1994 by Routledge.

ISBN:: 978-0-415-90808-5

(1 review)

"After reading Teaching to Transgress I am once again struck by bell hooks's never-ending, unquiet intellectual energy, an energy that makes her radical and loving." -- Paulo Freire

In Teaching to Transgress,bell hooks--writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual--writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world …

"After reading Teaching to Transgress I am once again struck by bell hooks's never-ending, unquiet intellectual energy, an energy that makes her radical and loving." -- Paulo Freire

In Teaching to Transgress,bell hooks--writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual--writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.

"To educate is the practice of freedom," writes bell hooks, "is a way of teaching anyone can learn." Teaching to Transgress is the record of one gifted teacher's struggle to make classrooms work.

1 edition

Ika Makimaki reviewed Teaching To Transgress by bell hooks

Review of 'Teaching To Transgress' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Been wanting to read more material from Bell Hooks and got this on loan from the library. It is an outstanding view on education and intersectionality in the classroom. She makes it very clear how the complexities of power, class, gender, race and even language generate a dynamic environment that should not be ignored and assumed to be neutral in the classroom. She tells her own experiences as a student and a teacher and links them to the needs of nurturing young souls.
She also talks about colonisation and its legacy and the fact that the very language we use is a tool of oppression, that needs to be owned and wielded by the powerless to reclaim their very humanity. She sums it up and elaborates from this phrase from a poem by Adrienne Rich: “This is the oppressor’s language yet I need it to talk to you.”
Powerful thoughts …

Been wanting to read more material from Bell Hooks and got this on loan from the library. It is an outstanding view on education and intersectionality in the classroom. She makes it very clear how the complexities of power, class, gender, race and even language generate a dynamic environment that should not be ignored and assumed to be neutral in the classroom. She tells her own experiences as a student and a teacher and links them to the needs of nurturing young souls.
She also talks about colonisation and its legacy and the fact that the very language we use is a tool of oppression, that needs to be owned and wielded by the powerless to reclaim their very humanity. She sums it up and elaborates from this phrase from a poem by Adrienne Rich: “This is the oppressor’s language yet I need it to talk to you.”
Powerful thoughts that challenge the status quo and although it is clearly intended for educators, as a parent and just a human being striving to be better and uplift those around me, it is essential reading.