"Building a Teaching Community: A Dialogue" (1)

bell hooks structures this chapter as a discussion with her colleague Ron Scapp. This structure creates a critical space. (I had wondered what that meant.) This forum enables the free and frank exchange of ideas.

 

Her reconceptualization of engaged pedagogy resonates with me.

• Cultural studies must combine theory and practice. Check.
• We must consider all points of view. All permutations of race and gender. Check.
• She identifies herself as a writer first, then as a teacher. Thus, she came to teaching with no pedagogical shibboleths. Me, too. Check.
• These engaged pedagogical strategies benefit herself as much as they benefit her students. Check.
• You can’t pay lip service to liberatory pedagogy (Talk the talk) without enacting it (Walk the walk). Check.
• Decenter the teacher’s voice; encourage her to listen. Check.
• Give students freedom in the classroom. This way, teachers and students can work together. This. Does. Not. Lead. To. Chaos. Check.
• Acknowledge those precious moments when a student changes your way of thinking. Check.
• Realize that this type of learning process is difficult (and painful; and troubling). That it takes time. Check.
• Realize that learning is hard work but it’s also joyful. Check
• Appreciate how sharing in the classroom elicits emotions. These emotions lead to therapeutic breakthroughs. Check.
• Maintain high standards but de-emphasize the role of grades. Check.
• Promote active participation in students. Check.
• Recognize that being a teacher means to be with people. Check.
• Understand that professors need to be aware of their presence in the classroom. Acknowledge what brought them to that point. Check.
• Teachers must be aware of what they say and how they say it. Check
• Appreciate the importance of sharing personal narratives that link knowledge with academic information. Check
• Affirm the value of student voices. Check
• Realize that what what happens in a classroom is the formation of a learning community. (As with this class!) Check.

But there are issues that we need to address. A lot of what hooks writes she calls experiments.

• Are classrooms the proper place to conduct experiments?
• The reconfigured classroom won't resemble their familiar banking system of learning. How to address that?
• She calls it a tragedy that professors at repressive public institutions (CSUDH?) assume that students see themselves as having nothing valuable to offer. Really?
• Students may fear the professor who acts like a passenger and not a captain in the classroom. Really?