Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Bell Hooks

Routledge, 1994 - Art - 216 pages

In this book, the author shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratic participation. She writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. She advocates the process of teaching students to think critically and raises many concerns central to the field of critical pedagogy, linking them to feminist thought. In the process, these essays face squarely the problems of teachers who do not want to teach, of students who do not want to learn, of racism and sexism in the classroom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for the author, the teacher's most important goal. -- From back cover.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - kristykay22 - LibraryThing

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 ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - alwright1 - LibraryThing

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.

About the author

Bell Hooks was born Gloria Watkins on September 25, 1952. She grew up in a small Southern community that gave her a sense of belonging as well as a sense of racial separation. She has degrees from Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has served as a noted activist and social critic and has taught at numerous colleges. Hooks uses her great-grandmother's name to write under as a tribute to her ancestors. Hooks writes daring and controversial works that explore African-American female identities. In works such as Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism and Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, she points out how feminism works for and against black women. Oppressed since slavery, black women must overcome the dual odds of race and gender discrimination to come to terms with equality and self-worth.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
• Author: Bell Hooks
• Publisher: Routledge, 1994
• ISBN: 0415908078, 9780415908078
• Length: 216 pages
• Subjects: Art / Popular Culture