Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

by bell hooks

Book Overview

Ten years ago, bell hooks astonished readers with Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Now comes Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope - a powerful, visionary work that will enrich our teaching and our lives. Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences. Teaching, she explains, can happen anywhere, any time - not just in college classrooms but in churches, in bookstores, in homes where people get together to share ideas that affect their daily lives.

In Teaching Community bell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.

Teachers of vision know that democratic education can never be confined to a classroom. Teaching - so often undervalued in our society -- can be a joyous and inclusive activity. bell hooks shows the way. "When teachers teach with love, combining care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust, we are often able to enter the classroom and go straight to the heart of the matter, which is knowing what to do on any given day to create the best climate for learning."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415968186
• ISBN13: 9780415968188
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Good Read about Politics in Education

As to be expected, bell hooks uses direct language to talk about the deficiencies in American culture. What I liked about this book is the hopefulness that is possible to change and be an agent of change. She calls it like it is, which can offend some people. This book is a very good read for anyone interested in creating social justice in education.

Brilliant.

Totally eye opening. Really makes you question yourself and strive to be better. Reassuring that change and progress is still possible. Truly an inspiration. I also recommend Killing Rage, by bell hooks.

interesting, insightful read

I am reading this book for my Introduction to Feminisms class. So far, I have been enlightened by bell hooks' thoughts and experiences as an African American teacher. She clearly and effectively explains her stance on race relations and white supremacy in the context of her life experiences.