Commitment to Authenticity

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom has given me a new love for the classroom and appreciation for students. bell hooks really took her time to dive into this book about how to create a culturally diverse environment and engage that in almost any classroom. Specifically, she touches on race, class, and gender to tackle topics that most would avoid in a classroom setting. By challenging teachers, and students, hooks said that we can experience a mutual engagement to allow the possibility of change. I want to analyze her outlook on race and how she discussed how a multicultural standpoint can help educators develop a change in their approach to teaching.

She opens her discussion of race in this book and really takes a critical look at engaged pedagogy. Being actively committed to self-actualization allows teachers to understand what their role really looks like in the classroom, especially in regards to understanding students of minority groups. hooks argued that the notion of engaged pedagogy "values student's expressions"to insure that the teacher's voice is not the only one being heard in the classroom. (p. 20). This means that we are not only engaging in their ideas and thoughts as scholars, but also considering their diverse backgrounds and how those shape and form their perceptions about the world. Considering one's social constructionism allows a teacher to fully commit to understanding the other in a classroom. She discussed how often the white perspective is fully engaged and understood as the over-arching theme for how classrooms should be structured. Immediately, I imagined myself in a classroom where I once felt like my voice was not accepted. These moments are easy to recollect because I am an individual of color and I do identify with a minority group. This is not to say that I feel oppressed all the time in the classroom, but feeling that a dominant voice should be only accepted was and is a struggle for me. Faced with the fear that we are subject to become "clones of our peers," feeling obligated to perform a certain way in the classroom is often a common argument for people of color (p. 5).

Understood that this a cultural phenomena that seems to constantly question white privilege in the classroom and how it is always at the margins for minorities. How can we as instructors seek to create what hooks argued is a safe environment to learn when we do not call about self into question?

hooks developed the argument for teachers to understand their role in relationship to their students... or in other words, she called for us to look at multicultural standpoint. hooks argued that there is a fear amongst educators when discussing multicultural issues and losing control in the classroom, but when a space is created for those fears to be discussed, entering into areas of building a community with students. What an approach! Of course this means that we are not always going to feel our best self when entering certain topics/issues but avoiding those topic/issues are exactly why struggles continue to exist.

This dated video, is a great example of what hooks discussed in her book about engaging in pedagogy... embracing education as the practice of freedom... teaching to transgress. The responsibility she places upon the educator is so necessary in that we MUST shift the focus on people instead of things in order to reach these levels. But we must continually ask ourselves are we now altering the roles of oppressors in the classroom as a way to make our students engage in discussions about race, class, and gender? Is this truly the role of an instructor? Should we really seek to value each an individuals voice and perception about social issues? You can only picture the results of a discussion like this if there were was not regulation of how to unpack why racial topics are always controversial.

Yes. If not, what will happen to the desire for creative space? What will happen to the student who feels like they cannot identify with class discussions... especially those about racial issues... and especially when the topic about their race is at hand? Why should anyone feel as if they cannot discuss those issues with their teacher or peers? In order to reach a frame of understanding, we MUST do MORE than call attention to the ways in how education can be a practice of freedom. "We must acknowledge that our styles of teaching may need to change,"(p. 35). We must change.

hooks would say yes for multiple reasons (i.e. race, class, and gender). Paulo Friere would say yes. And then Stanley Fish would HEAVILY disagree. But it is in this disagreement that critical approaches to pedagogy are able to prosper and to inspire future generations of educators. We need his and others' disagreement to keep the conversation moving about education. A commitment to authenticity is truly NOT an easy task. Accrediting Friere with inspiring her approach to pedagogy, hooks said that "Friere's work (and that of many other teachers) affirmed my right as a subject in resistance to define my reality," (p. 53).  Well bell hooks, you have affirmed mine.

LOHRUH