Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
16th out of 98 books
—
35 voters
Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope
by
Bell Hooks
Ten years ago, bell hooks astonished readers with Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Now comes teaching community - a powerful and heartfelt book that will enrich our lives. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences, her siblings and her family life, and of her decision to resign her position as Distinguished Professor at City College...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
August 25th 2003
by Routledge
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,300)
Not a pedagogy proper but a loose collection of essays, 'Teaching Community' addresses the progressive potential of cultural studies, her experience of black womanhood in a white society, the tricky nature of white allyship, spiritual and 'death-aware' education, the effect of shaming on the performance of students of color, and her own educational experiences under Jim Crow. The writing is plain to the point of feeling clunky at times, and the book could stand editing (there's a chapter on her...more
incredible
Adding the quotes I noted for my own reference here (private notes section was too small).
(xv) definition of dialogue: "both sides are willing to change" - Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhan Hanh
(22) "my commitment to radical openness and devotion to critical thinking... was at odds with the demands that I uphold the status quo if I wanted to be rewarded"
(27) "It is as though the very act of thinking about the nature of race and racism is still seen as 'dirty' work best suited for bl...more
Adding the quotes I noted for my own reference here (private notes section was too small).
(xv) definition of dialogue: "both sides are willing to change" - Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhan Hanh
(22) "my commitment to radical openness and devotion to critical thinking... was at odds with the demands that I uphold the status quo if I wanted to be rewarded"
(27) "It is as though the very act of thinking about the nature of race and racism is still seen as 'dirty' work best suited for bl...more
though i was sometimes frustrated by the sometimes repetitive nature of the book (i guess it's not meant to be read cover to cover), and the typos (!!!), this book has me thinking and thinking and thinking. especially about the place of spirituality in teaching. as a teacher with a spiritual and religious life, i often lament my inability to bring that to my learning community. i'm not at all interested in indoctrination or in teaching students about the particulars of my religious tradition. mo...more
A perplexing book-- if you look at it as a collection of essays, it makes more sense, but taken together it's a bizarre reading experience.
One of the reasons for this is that this is without a doubt the single most poorly copy-edited book I have ever read. It's hard to get through more than a few pages at a time without stumbling across a howler of a grammatical or sentence error that an editor has let stand. From time to time these errors are sneaky, but mostly they're glaring and obvious, inte...more
One of the reasons for this is that this is without a doubt the single most poorly copy-edited book I have ever read. It's hard to get through more than a few pages at a time without stumbling across a howler of a grammatical or sentence error that an editor has let stand. From time to time these errors are sneaky, but mostly they're glaring and obvious, inte...more
Oct 16, 2008
Amanda
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
communicators/teachers/believers
Recommended to Amanda by:
catalog
"Learned helplessness is necessary for the maintenance of dominator culture" This was my first book by bell hooks. I may be hooked. This was really the summary of everything I have been thinking about lately. Teaching, anti-racism, anti domination cultures. She also references Thich Naht Han who touched me after only a small dose of writing. I'm moving towards acceptance of the spiritual as part of the cure.
The book is about how academia upholds tha status quo. How dissident voices are needed as...more
The book is about how academia upholds tha status quo. How dissident voices are needed as...more
Feb 13, 2008
Owen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone, really, but see above for more
Recommended to Owen by:
Bilen
I highly recommend this book to anyone who teaches or facilitates and anyone interested in deconstructing racism. It is so important. I wish I had read this years ago, before entering any learning environment as a teacher/facilitator.
This book shows how teaching can work to make learning a more human process, one that challenges and works to end racism, white supremacy and sexism. While bell hooks attempts to make the book accessible to any audience, it is still very academic, but her free flow...more
This book shows how teaching can work to make learning a more human process, one that challenges and works to end racism, white supremacy and sexism. While bell hooks attempts to make the book accessible to any audience, it is still very academic, but her free flow...more
Anyone teaching in any context should read this book. If nothing else, it's a great memoir from a dynamic teacher with lots to say and reflect on about teaching and its role in our lives.
But what I love about bell hooks is the readability of her writing at the same time that she is thinking about really profound and complex things (like the intersections of race, class, and gender, and how these play out in our classrooms). She's an optimist. She's a pragmatist. She's sure of herself. She's hone...more
But what I love about bell hooks is the readability of her writing at the same time that she is thinking about really profound and complex things (like the intersections of race, class, and gender, and how these play out in our classrooms). She's an optimist. She's a pragmatist. She's sure of herself. She's hone...more
This is one of the most beautiful books on radical critical pedagogy. The love of community in the classroom and investing in students' engagement with a class. hooks is very inciteful of where she sees the vision of education and waht we need to work toward as educators-students.
What is it about bell hooks? I feel like she has this superpower that allows her to articulate exactly what I have been thinking. What is that? A talent? Or a practice. Either way, reading this book was very helpful to me especially the chapter on taking time out from teaching.
Parts of this were out of this world good; some slightly less. The chapter on sexual relations with students pushed me out of my comfort zone... Loved the perspective on racism and the academy.
A wonderful and thoughtful primer for anyone in education, this pedagogy of hope unpacks the patriarchal and prejudiced system of the past and rebuilds it in a hopeful, fair and multicultural way.
While this book had some great information in it, I was much more impressed with Teaching to Transgress. This book focuses a lot on race and diversity as being crucial parts of building a community. Some great points, especially about the mind-body split that is expected in academia.
All teachers should read this trilogy if they are serious about social justice in the classroom.
bell hooks is brilliant, there's no doubt. that brilliance shines through in this book, as in all of hers. nevertheless, i was a little disappointed by Teaching Community, because despite the awesome name, there is not much here about actual TEACHING. it's mostly about being a university professor, which i'm not. i've heard good things about her Teaching to Trangress, and i also need to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed... democratic education models are badly needed in this country, especially in...more
Nov 12, 2009
Tomie
added it
Community - that's what its all about!
perfectly splendid.
I learned a lot about teaching, love, and tolerance from this book. A lot of the ideas present in this book can also be found in Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of Freedom. The later chapters are easier to understand if you have some understanding of Taoism or yoga training... but they are accessible to others as well.
There are some grammar issues throughout that probably just missed the editor's eye, but they don't detract from the overall message of the book.
There are some grammar issues throughout that probably just missed the editor's eye, but they don't detract from the overall message of the book.
great resource for educators, organizers, activists. Validates radical openness and embraces Frierian understanding of horizontal power and fearlessness about loving your community and breaking down manufactured boundaries in the classroom or elsewhere that perpetuate patriarchal power dynamics. An inspiring liberating read, and one (for me) rather surprising and provocative chapter and personal revelation that I'm not sure where to land on....
The book starts off with a meandering autobiographical part that was off-putting, since I wasn't particularly interested in the last 10 years of the author's life. However, the middle and later chapters contain some excellent analysis of race, power, and morality issues. My biggest complaint (and this is not a fault of the book per se) is that it focuses almost entirely on higher academia and is not addressed toward youth education at all.
Another text I'm teaching. Not nearly as good as _Teaching to Transgress_, unfortunately. It's a good example of what Flower refers to as "writer-based prose." Hooks takes a lot of dense theoretical concepts and fails, in some cases, to provide a clear context for her readers, in this case, my students. She references Palmer a lot, too. In retrospect, I wish I would've chosen his text rather than hers. Still a fan of hooks, though!
This cannot be one of hooks’ best efforts (I’ve only read thoroughly All About Love, which is a great book). It is meandering and poorly edited (I’ve never seen so many typos in a published work). BUT it awoke in me a sense of my own spirituality and renewed my zeal for teaching (mostly by connecting the two). I can’t say that I would recommend it to others, but I got a lot out of it.
I was feeling very angry at the energy in a class of mine last week, and decided to take it as a challenge. I read some more of this book and felt inspired to discuss ideas of community, race, humanity and peace with my class. We had one of the best classes yet! All thanks to bell and her hope.
Incredible book that taught me a lot about teaching in a Women's Studies classroom. A must read for teachers who are committed to openness in the classroom.
I read this book for my feminist pedagogy class. hooks is a real hero of mine. I love her academic work and her activism.
I read this book for my feminist pedagogy class. hooks is a real hero of mine. I love her academic work and her activism.
What I appreciated most was when she got really specific about her own experiences with teaching -- what was hard about it & what lessons she learned. What I was frustrated by was when she got vague and meandering. I don't think this is her best book, but worth a read.
A remarkably disappointing "sequel" to Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community brings bell hooks addresses education as hippie. Yes, love is important, but much of this book was just meaningless rhetoric. Also, spirituality is not for everybody.
It was ok. Seemed hastily written or edited. Even though it's meant for everyone, or at the least those in positions of teaching (formal or informal), still seems best suited for teachers at colleges/universities, which is hooks' background.
this book has one of my favorite bell hooks essays in it. very inspiring, very important. i got it for my mother who has been stuck in the soul sucking world of academia for far too long.
it was interesting to read this - about academia and pedagogy and public schools and teaching, and think about that and how it relates to therapy. i love bell hooks.
teaching is the most hopeful act, because it assumes that people can learn and grow and change. I love bell hooks.
I've learned that bell hooks hates me for who I am, but forgives me for who I am. Ummmm...
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
bell hooks (born Gloria Jean Watkins) is an African-American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She has published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in...more
More about Bell Hooks...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.”
—
21 people liked it
“When we only name the problem, when we state complaint without a constructive focus or resolution, we take hope away. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture.”
—
10 people liked it
More quotes…
