September 19, 2005
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.
In this indispensable and highly influential book, bell hooks (the writing persona of Gloria Watson) writes essays in the varying forms of feminist personal narratives and/or dialogues, based on her experience as a black woman (both student and teacher) in an educational system dominated by a white male ethos. The essays all strive to break down that structure of domination. “Multilayered, then, these essays are meant to stand as testimony, bearing witness to education as the act of freedom.” (11)
Hooks’ work is informed by both feminist pedagogies and the Marxist critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire (see his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, abstracted on this site). In the introduction hooks discusses where these pedagogies took her and also the point at which she believes they failed. They lent her the tools to eschew the submission to authority and rote memorization occurring in what Freire calls the “banking system of education” and to practice in their place critical thinking and a democratic classroom engagement with the object of knowledge. But hooks suggests that even these critical systems fail to acknowledge the radical value of the pleasure of learning, particularly in higher education.
“Neither Freire’s work nor feminist pedagogy examined the notion of pleasure in the classroom. The idea that learning should be exciting, even “fun,” was the subject of critical practices in grade schools, and sometimes even high schools. But there seemed to be no interest among either traditional or radical educators in discussing the role of excitement in higher education.
Excitement in higher education was viewed as potentially disruptive of the atmosphere of seriousness assumed to be essential to the learning process. To enter classroom settings in colleges and universities with the will to share the desire to encourage excitement, was to transgress. Not only did it require movement beyond accepted boundaries, but excitement could not be generated without a full recognition of that fact that there could never be an absolute set agenda governing teaching practices. Agendas had to be flexible, had to allow for spontaneous shifts in direction. Students had to be seen in their particularity as individuals […] and interacted with according to their needs.” (7)
In her introduction hooks also writes about the necessity that the classroom be viewed as a community in which everyone has a voice and in which each member is acknowledged to be of value to discussion and the creation of knowledge.
The essays address many topics, including feminism, race, writing, pedagogy, and the work of Paulo Freire. But the central concern of the book is always the classroom and a deep belief in the power of teaching.
“In this book I want to share insights, strategies, and critical reflections on pedagogical practice. I intend these essays to be an intervention – countering the devaluation of teaching even as they address the urgent need for changes in teaching practices. They are meant to serve as a constructive commentary. Hopeful and exuberant, they convey the pleasure and joy I experience teaching; these essays are celebratory!” (10)
I purchased this book two years ago and never got around to completing it. It now seems that I am experiencing much of what the author feels regarding how various educational systems are like a disfunctional wine press. Education should be an act of freedom!