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Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom
In Teaching Critical Thinking, renowned cultural critic and progressive educator bell hooks addresses some of the most compelling issues facing teachers in and out of the classroom today.
In a series of short, accessible, and enlightening essays, hooks explores the confounding and sometimes controversial topics that teachers and students have urged her to address since the publication of the previous best-selling volumes in her Teaching series, Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. The issues are varied and broad, from whether meaningful teaching can take place in a large classroom setting to confronting issues of self-esteem. One professor, for example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for learning.
Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read for anyone who is at all interested in education today.
In a series of short, accessible, and enlightening essays, hooks explores the confounding and sometimes controversial topics that teachers and students have urged her to address since the publication of the previous best-selling volumes in her Teaching series, Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. The issues are varied and broad, from whether meaningful teaching can take place in a large classroom setting to confronting issues of self-esteem. One professor, for example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for learning.
Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read for anyone who is at all interested in education today.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
318 people are currently reading
11783 people want to read
About the author
bell hooks
162 books14.2k followersbell hooks (deliberately in lower-case; born Gloria Jean Watkins) was an African-American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern female perspective, she addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism.
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August 4, 2016
I read this for selfish reasons and am so glad that I did. I needed a refresher in terms of my approach to teaching and more than that, I needed to hear from a black, female intellectual (one who does not apologize for being any of these things) that has instructed at a predominately white college and in a way that prepares her students to be true learners rather than regurgitators of information who are passive listeners (which is academically gross btw). I get two weeks a year to prepare black kids who have been habitually under taught and nearly always over-graded (my wording for grade inflation and "empty A's") in their high school English classes to understand what it takes to truly write well at a collegiate level, hold their own in a college classroom and to speak up when they don't understand something - all this while steeling their psyche to endure being questioned as to whether or not they "earned" their place on campus (which is typically done by people whose parents have paid their way into damn near all of their opportunities). I selected this book because during my fourth year of teaching this course, I noticed how lacking critical thinking skills had become among students who had been tested to death, but not truly taught. How do you fortify a student whose assessment of her/his academic merit is overinflated, while getting her/him to unearth her/his true potential and do the work required to galvanize greatness against the backdrop of an environment that is rich in opportunity, yet extremely isolating? I chose to do this myself in high school, but my goal is to have them start the process BEFORE they are admitted to college. All I can tell you is that it's possible and that many sections of this book either told me how, affirmed that I was already doing so for my students or provided me with concrete tools and creative ideas to improve my curriculum and fine tune my teaching. Loved it and needed it.
September 1, 2014
I really like bell hooks – she is so clear and passionate. While these aren’t the only qualities one needs, they really do go a long way to having me forgive a multitude of other sins. My reading relationship with Malcolm Gladwell is a case in point; although needless to say, I feel I have far more in common with bell than with Malcolm.
And this is such a lovely book about things I’ve been thinking a lot about for quite some time. One of the main things that student teachers worry about is whether or not they are going to be able to maintain discipline in a classroom and, if they are, is that going to be at the cost of becoming a prison guard? This is made so much harder by the fact that we live in what is essentially an anti-intellectual culture. There are real costs involved if you are seen as being academically successful. So, any effort that might be involved in learning stuff generally has to be hidden. Smarter students tend to pretend that this stuff just comes to them naturally, no effort involved at all.
This presents a problem to the teacher, as one of the things, surely, a teacher really wants to do is impart a love of learning, but the smart kids are pretending learning involves no effort and the less smart kids are beating up anyone who looks like they are trying too hard. Teachers often only have their students for one year – if they don’t encourage their students to develop independent learning strategies, then they are really not helping their students at all. This is also the problem with standardised assessments – they reward teachers for teaching the ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’ of learning. But it is the how that really matters, even if you generally can't measure how well it has been taught.
It is not just the how of learning that matters, but also the how of the learning situation too. We don’t want kids to leave school just knowing how to count and read, but also how to be worthwhile citizens that are properly engaged in a democratic society. But if school is to teach kids to be citizens it needs to also be able to make democracy part of the lived experience of the school. And this isn’t something that is always done. Far too often school is a place where students are free to do what the teacher tells them. School is much better at teaching people how to live in a totalitarian dictatorship than in a democracy. That such a relationship to the world matches most people’s workplace experience perhaps shows both the limits to our real commitment to democracy and why.
One of the things necessary to be a fully participating member of society is to also have a well-developed critical faculty. What Postman referred to as a ‘bullshit detector’. Developing this is not an easy task.
We have this notion that those who awaken us from our slumbers, those who shock us into making our way out of Plato’s cave and into the terrifying light of day will be rewarded by our undying gratitude. We believe this because we like to also believe that we are not one of the mindless herd, but the kinds of people who reach their own decisions on the basis of a rational assessment of the facts. Sure, other people are prejudiced and manipulated by the culture around them – but not us. We are up to the task of seeing through the rubbish society presents us with. If we were in Ancient Greece we wouldn’t have been in the crowd that condemned Socrates to death, we’d have been standing beside Plato outraged.
Except, that one of the lessons in life is that we actually prefer to punish those who waken us from our slumbers. Socrates, Jesus, Lincoln, Martin Luther King – each sought to make fundamental changes to how we see the world and each got what was coming to them. Hooks’ point is that as teachers, as critical teachers, we are just as likely to be placed in the situation where we too are overturning an established order. Her point is, don't expect to be carried out on the shoulders of those whose world you’ve just crumbled into sand. You might be lucky, they might eventually thank you for this – but you certainly should not rely on it.
There is a really interesting bit in this where she discusses white females who cry in class over being confronted by racism, their own or those of other white people. Sometimes these are tears of empathy – empathy is generally a good thing – sometimes these are not that at all. My mother-in-law died last year. She spent most of her life working for nuclear disarmament. One year I got her to come to my high school (while I was still a student) and show a film and talk about why nuclear disarmament mattered. Young white girls left the hall while the film was being shown as it was simply too much for their delicate sensibilities. God only knows how they would have lived through an actual nuclear war. We have trained our daughters that there is a kind of strength in weakness. That tears can be an excellent means of both defence and of gaining attention. Hooks asks when can a teacher use someone’s tears to enhance the learning situation and when should they be ignored. There is a lovely bit in this where she mentions a white woman rushing in tears from the classroom while black students were talking about having their arses kicked by their mothers. Hooks didn’t rush out after her because she decided that society generally expects black people to be overly concerned with the feelings of white people and therefore there was much to be learned in just continuing on regardless.
There is a lot in this book about using emotions to engage students. Laughter, empathy, sex and touching. She means sex, by the way. Not shagging your students, she certainly doesn’t mean that, but we try to pretend that we leave our erotic selves at the door when we enter the classroom – whereas what might really be needed is to engage with that kind of passion as yet another means help our students to access the joy of ‘text’, as they say. She also acknowledges the problems involved in touching students – no question – but this is an interesting problem. While she was discussing this I couldn’t help thinking of something I saw last year at a conference. A Maori leader in New Zealand in the 19th century signed a treaty with some white people – but he signed it by drawing his facial tattoos where a signature would generally go. When the white people finally transgressed the terms of the treaty, as is our wont, the Maori leader said that he and the white person who signed the document ought to rub noses so they could feel the warmth of each other’s breath mingling. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you have ever heard? I really do wish I could believe that would be all it would take to resolve matters – and obviously, the Maori were hardly tree hugging hippies, but rather a war-like people long before white people turned up, but like I said, I really do think that although such a thing is not ‘enough’ it does seem to be a nice bit along the road to mutual understanding. The power of such intimate and personal contact can hardly be overstated. All the same, I’m not going to be running around touching too many of my students any time soon.
I just want to say one more thing about empathy – and this is something I have been thinking about an awful lot lately. Our society does everything it can to make us individuals. The fact is that individuals are incredibly easy to contain and control. It is in the interests of those who have the most to gain from our social situation that the rest of us continue to be individuals. That is why Thatcher said there was no such thing as society and people on the right tend to get so worked up about a very particular kind of ‘freedom’.
I think that any contact you have with people that increases you or their empathy, that encourages contact between you and other people, is a damn good thing. In fact, a revolutionary thing. Anything that allows you to feel through the skin of someone else, so that their skin becomes your skin makes the world a better place.
She also mentions that we need to find ways to eroticise equality. You see, most of our ‘eroticism’ is based on how our society is based and run as a patriarchy. That is, it is premised on male domination and on female submission or on perversions of this dominant paradigm – the whole dominatrix stuff, for example. I read a part of an article in The Guardian recently that said that men who help around the house doing the kinds of jobs that are socially constructed as female (cleaning the bathroom, cooking, vacuuming) are much less likely to get sex than men who do male type jobs. This struck a bit of a chord with me, resonating a little too closely with my own experience. But I think hooks is onto something important here – we really do need to make equality erotic – and I guess this is a large part of what she means about bringing eros into the classroom.
I’m going to be reading more of bell hooks over the next wee while, I think. She is a delightful person to read and says the most interesting things in the simplest way possible. A talent that is as valuable as it is rare.
And this is such a lovely book about things I’ve been thinking a lot about for quite some time. One of the main things that student teachers worry about is whether or not they are going to be able to maintain discipline in a classroom and, if they are, is that going to be at the cost of becoming a prison guard? This is made so much harder by the fact that we live in what is essentially an anti-intellectual culture. There are real costs involved if you are seen as being academically successful. So, any effort that might be involved in learning stuff generally has to be hidden. Smarter students tend to pretend that this stuff just comes to them naturally, no effort involved at all.
This presents a problem to the teacher, as one of the things, surely, a teacher really wants to do is impart a love of learning, but the smart kids are pretending learning involves no effort and the less smart kids are beating up anyone who looks like they are trying too hard. Teachers often only have their students for one year – if they don’t encourage their students to develop independent learning strategies, then they are really not helping their students at all. This is also the problem with standardised assessments – they reward teachers for teaching the ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’ of learning. But it is the how that really matters, even if you generally can't measure how well it has been taught.
It is not just the how of learning that matters, but also the how of the learning situation too. We don’t want kids to leave school just knowing how to count and read, but also how to be worthwhile citizens that are properly engaged in a democratic society. But if school is to teach kids to be citizens it needs to also be able to make democracy part of the lived experience of the school. And this isn’t something that is always done. Far too often school is a place where students are free to do what the teacher tells them. School is much better at teaching people how to live in a totalitarian dictatorship than in a democracy. That such a relationship to the world matches most people’s workplace experience perhaps shows both the limits to our real commitment to democracy and why.
One of the things necessary to be a fully participating member of society is to also have a well-developed critical faculty. What Postman referred to as a ‘bullshit detector’. Developing this is not an easy task.
We have this notion that those who awaken us from our slumbers, those who shock us into making our way out of Plato’s cave and into the terrifying light of day will be rewarded by our undying gratitude. We believe this because we like to also believe that we are not one of the mindless herd, but the kinds of people who reach their own decisions on the basis of a rational assessment of the facts. Sure, other people are prejudiced and manipulated by the culture around them – but not us. We are up to the task of seeing through the rubbish society presents us with. If we were in Ancient Greece we wouldn’t have been in the crowd that condemned Socrates to death, we’d have been standing beside Plato outraged.
Except, that one of the lessons in life is that we actually prefer to punish those who waken us from our slumbers. Socrates, Jesus, Lincoln, Martin Luther King – each sought to make fundamental changes to how we see the world and each got what was coming to them. Hooks’ point is that as teachers, as critical teachers, we are just as likely to be placed in the situation where we too are overturning an established order. Her point is, don't expect to be carried out on the shoulders of those whose world you’ve just crumbled into sand. You might be lucky, they might eventually thank you for this – but you certainly should not rely on it.
There is a really interesting bit in this where she discusses white females who cry in class over being confronted by racism, their own or those of other white people. Sometimes these are tears of empathy – empathy is generally a good thing – sometimes these are not that at all. My mother-in-law died last year. She spent most of her life working for nuclear disarmament. One year I got her to come to my high school (while I was still a student) and show a film and talk about why nuclear disarmament mattered. Young white girls left the hall while the film was being shown as it was simply too much for their delicate sensibilities. God only knows how they would have lived through an actual nuclear war. We have trained our daughters that there is a kind of strength in weakness. That tears can be an excellent means of both defence and of gaining attention. Hooks asks when can a teacher use someone’s tears to enhance the learning situation and when should they be ignored. There is a lovely bit in this where she mentions a white woman rushing in tears from the classroom while black students were talking about having their arses kicked by their mothers. Hooks didn’t rush out after her because she decided that society generally expects black people to be overly concerned with the feelings of white people and therefore there was much to be learned in just continuing on regardless.
There is a lot in this book about using emotions to engage students. Laughter, empathy, sex and touching. She means sex, by the way. Not shagging your students, she certainly doesn’t mean that, but we try to pretend that we leave our erotic selves at the door when we enter the classroom – whereas what might really be needed is to engage with that kind of passion as yet another means help our students to access the joy of ‘text’, as they say. She also acknowledges the problems involved in touching students – no question – but this is an interesting problem. While she was discussing this I couldn’t help thinking of something I saw last year at a conference. A Maori leader in New Zealand in the 19th century signed a treaty with some white people – but he signed it by drawing his facial tattoos where a signature would generally go. When the white people finally transgressed the terms of the treaty, as is our wont, the Maori leader said that he and the white person who signed the document ought to rub noses so they could feel the warmth of each other’s breath mingling. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you have ever heard? I really do wish I could believe that would be all it would take to resolve matters – and obviously, the Maori were hardly tree hugging hippies, but rather a war-like people long before white people turned up, but like I said, I really do think that although such a thing is not ‘enough’ it does seem to be a nice bit along the road to mutual understanding. The power of such intimate and personal contact can hardly be overstated. All the same, I’m not going to be running around touching too many of my students any time soon.
I just want to say one more thing about empathy – and this is something I have been thinking about an awful lot lately. Our society does everything it can to make us individuals. The fact is that individuals are incredibly easy to contain and control. It is in the interests of those who have the most to gain from our social situation that the rest of us continue to be individuals. That is why Thatcher said there was no such thing as society and people on the right tend to get so worked up about a very particular kind of ‘freedom’.
I think that any contact you have with people that increases you or their empathy, that encourages contact between you and other people, is a damn good thing. In fact, a revolutionary thing. Anything that allows you to feel through the skin of someone else, so that their skin becomes your skin makes the world a better place.
She also mentions that we need to find ways to eroticise equality. You see, most of our ‘eroticism’ is based on how our society is based and run as a patriarchy. That is, it is premised on male domination and on female submission or on perversions of this dominant paradigm – the whole dominatrix stuff, for example. I read a part of an article in The Guardian recently that said that men who help around the house doing the kinds of jobs that are socially constructed as female (cleaning the bathroom, cooking, vacuuming) are much less likely to get sex than men who do male type jobs. This struck a bit of a chord with me, resonating a little too closely with my own experience. But I think hooks is onto something important here – we really do need to make equality erotic – and I guess this is a large part of what she means about bringing eros into the classroom.
I’m going to be reading more of bell hooks over the next wee while, I think. She is a delightful person to read and says the most interesting things in the simplest way possible. A talent that is as valuable as it is rare.
January 14, 2025
Jede meiner Rezensionen zu bell hooks beginne ich damit, dass ich eigentlich kein Interesse (mehr) an bell hooks' Werk habe. Aber die Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Berlin hört einfach nicht auf, ihre Bücher in ihren Katalog aufzunehmen und zu einem kostenlosen bell hooks-Buch kann ich dann auch nicht nein sagen. Ihre Bücher, die sich mit den alltäglichen Herausforderungen des Lehrens und Lernens in Schule und Universität beschäftigen, finde ich auf jeden Fall um einiges besser als die Werke, die sich mit Feminismus, Gender und Sexualität auseinandersetzen. Daher war ich bei diesem Buch eigentlich guter Dinge und wurde auch nicht wirklich enttäuscht.
In Kritisch denken lernen, welches der dritte und letzte Teil von hooks' Pädagogikbüchern bildet, antwortet sie in 32 kurzen und leicht verständlich geschriebenen Essays auf jene Fragen, die sie nach der Veröffentlichung der zwei Vorgängerbände—Die Welt verändern lernen und Gemeinschaft leben lernen—erreicht haben.
Die Themen sind vielfältig und breit gefächert: Ist vernünftiger Unterricht auch in großen Lerngruppen möglich? Was können Schüler*innen und Studierende gegen einen langweiligen Unterricht tun? Wie können Schwarze weibliche Lehrende eine positive Autorität im Hörsaal aufrechterhalten, ohne durch die Brille negativer rassistischer und sexistischer Stereotypen gesehen zu werden? Kann Humor beim Lernen dienlich sein? Und wie soll eine Lehrperson mit Tränen im Klassenzimmer umgehen?
Ich habe mir schon lange ein praxisorientiertes Buch, das sich an Lehrpersonen richtet, gewünscht. Leider finde ich hooks' Antworten auf diese Fragen oft zu wage und überhaupt nicht praxisnah, was wirklich schade ist. Ein Buch wie dieses hätte sich sehr gut dazu geeignet, mal aus dem Nähkästchen zu plaudern und auf echte Erfahrungen und Beispiele aus der eigenen Unterrichtspraxis einzugehen. Ich will hooks nicht absprechen, dass sie dies nicht hin und wieder in diesem Buch tut, aber sie verliert sich oft in theoretischen Ausflügen, die es wirklich nicht gebraucht hätte.
Für hooks ist Bildung der sicherste Weg zur Freiheit. Doch diesen Weg zu beschreiten, ist für Lernende nicht so leicht wie es klingen mag. Rassismus, Sexismus, Klassismus (...you name it) sind in Bildungseinrichtungen systemisch und versperren den Weg zur Freiheit—für alle Lernenden, auch diejenigen, die nicht von diesen -ismen betroffen sind.
Das Buch wurde 2009 geschrieben und hooks führt an, dass "rassistische Segregation" wieder der Normalfall an US-amerikanischen Schulen wird. Die Schulen des Landes seien wieder zunehmend nach Race und Klasse getrennt. Dieser Trend wird auch in fiktiven Werken afro-amerikanischer Autor*innen aufgegriffen, wie bspw. in Paul Beattys brillanten Roman The Sellout. hooks reflektiert über ihre eigenen Lernerfahrungen als Schülerin und Studentin und darüber, dass sie sich ihren Schwarzen Literaturkanon selbst erschließen musste, da Schwarzen Autor*innen in ihrem Unterricht kein Raum gegeben wurde. Die Werke von James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson u.n.v.m. musste sie auf eigene Faust finden.
Im vierten und fünften Essay—"Dekolonisierung" und "Integrität"—geht hooks nochmal explizit auf die Bildungshürden in kolonisierten Ländern ein. Denn sollte Bildung ja eigentlich der Weg zur Freiheit sein, wurde sie hier am übelsten von den Kolonisatoren missbraucht: "Bildung war immer ein Werkzeug der Kolonialisierung, das dazu diente, die Lernenden zu Ergebenheit gegenüber den herrschenden Verhältnissen zu erziehen." Sie führt führende Denker des Postkolonialismus an—Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Amílcar Cabral, Léopold Sédar Senghor—, was mich positiv überrascht hat, da hooks in anderen Werken oft in eine "one-woman-show" verfällt und anderen Denker*innen kaum Platz eingeräumt wird.
Als Professorin weiß hooks jedoch auch, dass der Weg zur Freiheit nicht nur aufgrund von Diskrimierung erschwert wird, manchmal sind es die Lernenden selbst, die sich gegen Bildung stellen. hooks stellt fest: "Tatsächlich sträuben sich die meisten Studierenden gegen den Prozess des kritischen Denkens: sie fühlen sich wohler, wenn sie beim Lernen passiv bleiben können." Und später: "[Lernende] haben oft kein Bedürfnis, ihr Wissen dauerhaft zu bewahren, es hat ja schließlich seinen Zweck erfüllt, nämlich den in der Prüfung gestellten Anforderungen zu genügen." Dies sind zwei Beobachtungen, die ich teile. Doch auch hier ist die Verantwortung zweigeteilt. Natürlich sollte man an die Eigenverantwortung der Lernenden appellieren, vor allem wenn wir uns im universitären Kontext befinden und die Lernenden erwachsen sind, aber der Fehler liegt natürlich auch im System: alles in unserem Bildungssystem ist auf Bestehen und gute Noten ausgelegt. Ich selbst wurde selten während meiner Bildungslaufbahn dazu animiert, kritisch und eigenständig zu denken. Es ging immer nur darum, Tests und Klassenarbeiten mit Einsen abzuschließen.
hooks schreibt: "Wenn eine Lehrperson der grenzenlosen Fantasie im Unterricht freien Lauf lässt, dann erweitert sich der Spielraum für transformative Lernen." Doch es ist genau dieses transformative Lernen, das in unserem Bildungssystem oft zu kurz kommt. Leider zeigt hooks keine konkreten Wege auf, wie man als Lehrperson transformatives Lernen fördern kann.
Eine Offenbarung, die ich sehr wertvoll fand, ist, dass hooks zugibt: "in meinen dunkelsten Stunden, als ich mich innerhalb der akademischen Institutionen systematisch angegriffen fühlte, als ich glaube, dass meine einzige Hoffnung zu überleben und gesund zu bleiben, darin bestand, der Wissenschaft den Rücken zu kehren"—auch dies ist eine Erfahrung, die ich als Schwarze Person in primär weißen Bildungsräumen und -institutionen oft hatte.
Ich möchte noch auf ein paar konkrete Beispiele eingehen, die mich wirklich gestört haben. Es handelt sich vor allem um Kapitel 25 und 26: "Spiritualität" und "Berührung". (Nobody is surprised.)
Ich möchte vorweg sagen, dass bell hooks und ich einen ganz anderen Zugang und Ansatz zu Spiritualität haben. Demnach ist meine Meinung hier vielleicht ein bisschen biased, aber einige Aussagen, die sie trifft, finde ich potentiell gefährlich und möchte daher dagegen anreden.
Zur "Freundschaft" zwischen Lehrperson und einzelnen Lernenden schreibt hooks: "…bei aller Verbundenheit, die vielleicht entsteht—es bleibt eine hierarchische Beziehung." Und ich dachte mir erstmal, wow, das ist ja wirklich progressiv für sie und total anders als das, was sie noch im ersten Band geschrieben hat. Aber nein, auf diesen richtigen und wichtigen Satz folgen Relativierungen und Falschaussagen. Here's a best of of the bullshit:
• "Wenn Lehrende verehrt, wirklich bewundert und respektiert werden, verbessert sich unsere Fähigkeit zu lehren und zu lernen." — SAYS WHO? Respekt ist unabdingbar und Bewunderung in einem gewissen Maß vielleicht auch noch in Ordnung, aber Verehrung?? WTF? Warum sollte irgendwer seine Lehrperson verehren? I think not.
• "Kritisches Denken im Unterricht ist eine Möglichkeit, ein höheres Bewusstsein zu kultivieren. Es versetzt die Lernenden in die Lage, die wechselseitige Verbundenheit allen Lebens besser zu erkennen und bringt sie auf diese Weise mit dem Heiligen in Kontakt. Sie werden zu einem bewussten Prozess der Achtsamkeit und des Gewahrseins befähigt." I don't know about you, aber ich war noch nie in meinem Leben "mit dem Heiligen in Kontakt", and I think that's a good thing. Wie gesagt, es ist einfach eine Form von Spiritualität, mit der ich ja mal so gar nichts anfangen kann. Aber wie gesagt, sowas kann ich noch tolerieren, im Gegensatz zu Bullshit wie diesem: "Die Präsenz von Eros im Unterricht eröffnet uns den Zugang zum Heiligen." *KOTZ, KOTZ, KOTZ*
• "Wenn sich die Sinnlichkeit des Eros im Unterricht in Richtung Sexualität bewegt, führt dies zu Chaos und Unfrieden." Nein, bestie, es führt zu Missbrauch. Let's not sugarcoat it.
• "Es ist wichtig, wachsam zu sein gegenüber einem Machtmissbrauch, bei dem die Erotik zu einem Terrain der Ausbeutung wird. Doch ebenso wichtig ist es, den Raum zu erkennen, in dem erotische Interaktion befähigend wirkt und positive Veränderungen herbeiführt." — Ich bin so maximal verwirrt. Wie kann das zweite EBENSO WICHTIG sein wie wachsam gegenüber Machtmissbrauch zu sein?? Make it make sense?? Mal ganz davon abgesehen, dass es im Unterricht einfach keinen Raum für erotische Interaktion geben darf.
• "Stellt euch sich vor, dass ein*e Professor*in ‘erregt’ ist, weil mehrere außergewöhnliche Studierende am Kurs teilnehmen und deren Anwesenheit einfach die Lernleidenschaft aller entfacht; das ist die Energie, die zu einer leidenschaftlichen Pädagogik führen kann, die sich positiv auf alle auswirkt." NO, NO, NO. Es ist einfach mega uncomfortable diese Zitate von hooks zu lesen.
Zwei weitere (kleinere Kritikpunkte): 1. Kapitel 27 bis 30 haben überhaupt nichts mit Lehre zu tun und kommen sehr willkürlich daher. Und 2. schreibt hooks: "Bücher am Bildschirm zu lesen kann nie dasselbe sein, wie ein Buch in der Hand zu halten" — OKAY BOOMER.
Aber da ich ja so 'ne nette Maus bin, möchte ich die Rezension mit ein paar Beobachtungen und Zitaten schließen, die ich wirklich gut fand:
• "...dass fiktionale Werke nicht unbedingt immer den herrschenden Verhältnissen oder der Realität entsprechen müssen, und das tun sie in der Regel auch nicht. Umso kritischer müssen Leser*innen sein, wenn Figuren starke Vorurteile und Hass gegenüber einer bestimmten Gruppe äußern." – sehe ich genauso! Viel zu oft ruhen sich Autor*innen darauf aus, Vorurteile zu perpetuieren unter dem Deckmantel der Fiktion and it's fucking bullshit. Do better.
• "Als Lehrende sind wir Brennpunkt eines kollektiven Blicks, bevor überhaupt Worte gesprochen werden." => literally der einzige gute Satz aus ihrem Kapitel "Berührung"
• In "Lernen als prophetische Berufung" (...kleiner hat sich's auch nicht), schreibt hooks: "Wenn mich Studierende fragen, was ich mir am meisten von ihnen wünsche, sage ich ihnen, dass es nicht meine Absicht ist, sie zu ‘kleinen bell hooks’ zu machen. Sie müssen nicht so denken wie ich. Vielmehr wünsche ich mir, dass sie lernen, kritisch zu denken, um sich selbst zu verwirklichen und selbstbestimmt zu leben." Und das finde ich wirklich toll. Man hat ja oft den Eindruck, dass sie etwas selbstverliebt ist und denkt, sie sei die Einzige, die die Weisheit mit dem Löffel gefressen hat, aber ich kaufe ihr dieses Zitat wirklich ab, und ich kann mir auch gut vorstellen, dass es viele Studierende gibt, die viel aus ihren Vorlesungen und Seminaren gezogen haben.
Im letzten Kapitel appelliert hooks nochmal an unsere Selbstverantwortung: "Wenn wir uns entschließen, kritisch denkenden Menschen zu werden, treffen wir bereits eine Entscheidung, die uns in Opposition zu jedem Bildungssystem oder Kulturverständnis stellt, das uns zu passiven Empfänger*innen von Wissen machen will." Yes. Yes. Yes.
Und wie immer schließe ich meine hooks-Rezension mit folgendem Gedanken: Last hooks for now. Unless the Landeszentrale decides to stock another of her books—which will likely happen, lmao. I'm such a mess.
In Kritisch denken lernen, welches der dritte und letzte Teil von hooks' Pädagogikbüchern bildet, antwortet sie in 32 kurzen und leicht verständlich geschriebenen Essays auf jene Fragen, die sie nach der Veröffentlichung der zwei Vorgängerbände—Die Welt verändern lernen und Gemeinschaft leben lernen—erreicht haben.
Die Themen sind vielfältig und breit gefächert: Ist vernünftiger Unterricht auch in großen Lerngruppen möglich? Was können Schüler*innen und Studierende gegen einen langweiligen Unterricht tun? Wie können Schwarze weibliche Lehrende eine positive Autorität im Hörsaal aufrechterhalten, ohne durch die Brille negativer rassistischer und sexistischer Stereotypen gesehen zu werden? Kann Humor beim Lernen dienlich sein? Und wie soll eine Lehrperson mit Tränen im Klassenzimmer umgehen?
Ich habe mir schon lange ein praxisorientiertes Buch, das sich an Lehrpersonen richtet, gewünscht. Leider finde ich hooks' Antworten auf diese Fragen oft zu wage und überhaupt nicht praxisnah, was wirklich schade ist. Ein Buch wie dieses hätte sich sehr gut dazu geeignet, mal aus dem Nähkästchen zu plaudern und auf echte Erfahrungen und Beispiele aus der eigenen Unterrichtspraxis einzugehen. Ich will hooks nicht absprechen, dass sie dies nicht hin und wieder in diesem Buch tut, aber sie verliert sich oft in theoretischen Ausflügen, die es wirklich nicht gebraucht hätte.
Für hooks ist Bildung der sicherste Weg zur Freiheit. Doch diesen Weg zu beschreiten, ist für Lernende nicht so leicht wie es klingen mag. Rassismus, Sexismus, Klassismus (...you name it) sind in Bildungseinrichtungen systemisch und versperren den Weg zur Freiheit—für alle Lernenden, auch diejenigen, die nicht von diesen -ismen betroffen sind.
Das Buch wurde 2009 geschrieben und hooks führt an, dass "rassistische Segregation" wieder der Normalfall an US-amerikanischen Schulen wird. Die Schulen des Landes seien wieder zunehmend nach Race und Klasse getrennt. Dieser Trend wird auch in fiktiven Werken afro-amerikanischer Autor*innen aufgegriffen, wie bspw. in Paul Beattys brillanten Roman The Sellout. hooks reflektiert über ihre eigenen Lernerfahrungen als Schülerin und Studentin und darüber, dass sie sich ihren Schwarzen Literaturkanon selbst erschließen musste, da Schwarzen Autor*innen in ihrem Unterricht kein Raum gegeben wurde. Die Werke von James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson u.n.v.m. musste sie auf eigene Faust finden.
Im vierten und fünften Essay—"Dekolonisierung" und "Integrität"—geht hooks nochmal explizit auf die Bildungshürden in kolonisierten Ländern ein. Denn sollte Bildung ja eigentlich der Weg zur Freiheit sein, wurde sie hier am übelsten von den Kolonisatoren missbraucht: "Bildung war immer ein Werkzeug der Kolonialisierung, das dazu diente, die Lernenden zu Ergebenheit gegenüber den herrschenden Verhältnissen zu erziehen." Sie führt führende Denker des Postkolonialismus an—Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Amílcar Cabral, Léopold Sédar Senghor—, was mich positiv überrascht hat, da hooks in anderen Werken oft in eine "one-woman-show" verfällt und anderen Denker*innen kaum Platz eingeräumt wird.
Als Professorin weiß hooks jedoch auch, dass der Weg zur Freiheit nicht nur aufgrund von Diskrimierung erschwert wird, manchmal sind es die Lernenden selbst, die sich gegen Bildung stellen. hooks stellt fest: "Tatsächlich sträuben sich die meisten Studierenden gegen den Prozess des kritischen Denkens: sie fühlen sich wohler, wenn sie beim Lernen passiv bleiben können." Und später: "[Lernende] haben oft kein Bedürfnis, ihr Wissen dauerhaft zu bewahren, es hat ja schließlich seinen Zweck erfüllt, nämlich den in der Prüfung gestellten Anforderungen zu genügen." Dies sind zwei Beobachtungen, die ich teile. Doch auch hier ist die Verantwortung zweigeteilt. Natürlich sollte man an die Eigenverantwortung der Lernenden appellieren, vor allem wenn wir uns im universitären Kontext befinden und die Lernenden erwachsen sind, aber der Fehler liegt natürlich auch im System: alles in unserem Bildungssystem ist auf Bestehen und gute Noten ausgelegt. Ich selbst wurde selten während meiner Bildungslaufbahn dazu animiert, kritisch und eigenständig zu denken. Es ging immer nur darum, Tests und Klassenarbeiten mit Einsen abzuschließen.
hooks schreibt: "Wenn eine Lehrperson der grenzenlosen Fantasie im Unterricht freien Lauf lässt, dann erweitert sich der Spielraum für transformative Lernen." Doch es ist genau dieses transformative Lernen, das in unserem Bildungssystem oft zu kurz kommt. Leider zeigt hooks keine konkreten Wege auf, wie man als Lehrperson transformatives Lernen fördern kann.
Eine Offenbarung, die ich sehr wertvoll fand, ist, dass hooks zugibt: "in meinen dunkelsten Stunden, als ich mich innerhalb der akademischen Institutionen systematisch angegriffen fühlte, als ich glaube, dass meine einzige Hoffnung zu überleben und gesund zu bleiben, darin bestand, der Wissenschaft den Rücken zu kehren"—auch dies ist eine Erfahrung, die ich als Schwarze Person in primär weißen Bildungsräumen und -institutionen oft hatte.
Ich möchte noch auf ein paar konkrete Beispiele eingehen, die mich wirklich gestört haben. Es handelt sich vor allem um Kapitel 25 und 26: "Spiritualität" und "Berührung". (Nobody is surprised.)
Ich möchte vorweg sagen, dass bell hooks und ich einen ganz anderen Zugang und Ansatz zu Spiritualität haben. Demnach ist meine Meinung hier vielleicht ein bisschen biased, aber einige Aussagen, die sie trifft, finde ich potentiell gefährlich und möchte daher dagegen anreden.
Zur "Freundschaft" zwischen Lehrperson und einzelnen Lernenden schreibt hooks: "…bei aller Verbundenheit, die vielleicht entsteht—es bleibt eine hierarchische Beziehung." Und ich dachte mir erstmal, wow, das ist ja wirklich progressiv für sie und total anders als das, was sie noch im ersten Band geschrieben hat. Aber nein, auf diesen richtigen und wichtigen Satz folgen Relativierungen und Falschaussagen. Here's a best of of the bullshit:
• "Wenn Lehrende verehrt, wirklich bewundert und respektiert werden, verbessert sich unsere Fähigkeit zu lehren und zu lernen." — SAYS WHO? Respekt ist unabdingbar und Bewunderung in einem gewissen Maß vielleicht auch noch in Ordnung, aber Verehrung?? WTF? Warum sollte irgendwer seine Lehrperson verehren? I think not.
• "Kritisches Denken im Unterricht ist eine Möglichkeit, ein höheres Bewusstsein zu kultivieren. Es versetzt die Lernenden in die Lage, die wechselseitige Verbundenheit allen Lebens besser zu erkennen und bringt sie auf diese Weise mit dem Heiligen in Kontakt. Sie werden zu einem bewussten Prozess der Achtsamkeit und des Gewahrseins befähigt." I don't know about you, aber ich war noch nie in meinem Leben "mit dem Heiligen in Kontakt", and I think that's a good thing. Wie gesagt, es ist einfach eine Form von Spiritualität, mit der ich ja mal so gar nichts anfangen kann. Aber wie gesagt, sowas kann ich noch tolerieren, im Gegensatz zu Bullshit wie diesem: "Die Präsenz von Eros im Unterricht eröffnet uns den Zugang zum Heiligen." *KOTZ, KOTZ, KOTZ*
• "Wenn sich die Sinnlichkeit des Eros im Unterricht in Richtung Sexualität bewegt, führt dies zu Chaos und Unfrieden." Nein, bestie, es führt zu Missbrauch. Let's not sugarcoat it.
• "Es ist wichtig, wachsam zu sein gegenüber einem Machtmissbrauch, bei dem die Erotik zu einem Terrain der Ausbeutung wird. Doch ebenso wichtig ist es, den Raum zu erkennen, in dem erotische Interaktion befähigend wirkt und positive Veränderungen herbeiführt." — Ich bin so maximal verwirrt. Wie kann das zweite EBENSO WICHTIG sein wie wachsam gegenüber Machtmissbrauch zu sein?? Make it make sense?? Mal ganz davon abgesehen, dass es im Unterricht einfach keinen Raum für erotische Interaktion geben darf.
• "Stellt euch sich vor, dass ein*e Professor*in ‘erregt’ ist, weil mehrere außergewöhnliche Studierende am Kurs teilnehmen und deren Anwesenheit einfach die Lernleidenschaft aller entfacht; das ist die Energie, die zu einer leidenschaftlichen Pädagogik führen kann, die sich positiv auf alle auswirkt." NO, NO, NO. Es ist einfach mega uncomfortable diese Zitate von hooks zu lesen.
Zwei weitere (kleinere Kritikpunkte): 1. Kapitel 27 bis 30 haben überhaupt nichts mit Lehre zu tun und kommen sehr willkürlich daher. Und 2. schreibt hooks: "Bücher am Bildschirm zu lesen kann nie dasselbe sein, wie ein Buch in der Hand zu halten" — OKAY BOOMER.
Aber da ich ja so 'ne nette Maus bin, möchte ich die Rezension mit ein paar Beobachtungen und Zitaten schließen, die ich wirklich gut fand:
• "...dass fiktionale Werke nicht unbedingt immer den herrschenden Verhältnissen oder der Realität entsprechen müssen, und das tun sie in der Regel auch nicht. Umso kritischer müssen Leser*innen sein, wenn Figuren starke Vorurteile und Hass gegenüber einer bestimmten Gruppe äußern." – sehe ich genauso! Viel zu oft ruhen sich Autor*innen darauf aus, Vorurteile zu perpetuieren unter dem Deckmantel der Fiktion and it's fucking bullshit. Do better.
• "Als Lehrende sind wir Brennpunkt eines kollektiven Blicks, bevor überhaupt Worte gesprochen werden." => literally der einzige gute Satz aus ihrem Kapitel "Berührung"
• In "Lernen als prophetische Berufung" (...kleiner hat sich's auch nicht), schreibt hooks: "Wenn mich Studierende fragen, was ich mir am meisten von ihnen wünsche, sage ich ihnen, dass es nicht meine Absicht ist, sie zu ‘kleinen bell hooks’ zu machen. Sie müssen nicht so denken wie ich. Vielmehr wünsche ich mir, dass sie lernen, kritisch zu denken, um sich selbst zu verwirklichen und selbstbestimmt zu leben." Und das finde ich wirklich toll. Man hat ja oft den Eindruck, dass sie etwas selbstverliebt ist und denkt, sie sei die Einzige, die die Weisheit mit dem Löffel gefressen hat, aber ich kaufe ihr dieses Zitat wirklich ab, und ich kann mir auch gut vorstellen, dass es viele Studierende gibt, die viel aus ihren Vorlesungen und Seminaren gezogen haben.
Im letzten Kapitel appelliert hooks nochmal an unsere Selbstverantwortung: "Wenn wir uns entschließen, kritisch denkenden Menschen zu werden, treffen wir bereits eine Entscheidung, die uns in Opposition zu jedem Bildungssystem oder Kulturverständnis stellt, das uns zu passiven Empfänger*innen von Wissen machen will." Yes. Yes. Yes.
Und wie immer schließe ich meine hooks-Rezension mit folgendem Gedanken: Last hooks for now. Unless the Landeszentrale decides to stock another of her books—which will likely happen, lmao. I'm such a mess.
January 31, 2011
bell hooks is my intellectual crush. She's has the awesome ability to blend progressive ideas, complex theory, good-will, feminism, love of self, and love of learning in all that she has written. Meeting her at an NCTE conference several years ago continues to be an indelible memory in my journey as a thinker, feminist, teacher and man. That she even seemed to be flirting with me as we conversed (at least the complete stranger sitting next to me thought so) stands as a bit of justification that I do come very close to the idea of the feminist man and justice-loving teacher that I hold as my standard. hooks approved!
Working as a high school teacher in 2011, though, I am often burdened with self-doubt and feelings of failure all of the time. While the classroom is a transformative place for me and will always be so, it is also astoundingly difficult to shoulder the unrealistic expectations, unhealthy pressures and negativity that pervades education these days. While my students continue to be important people in my life, people who I develop great love for, I lately feel I have lost my way a bit. The last couple years have been especially hard, in light of a string of district leaders without guts/vision and my own personal struggle to start a family. A lot of times I felt emotionally weak and unable to give students as much as they deserve.
But that's why I am so grateful for this book. It may seem to some as overstatement, but I think bell hooks has just professionally saved me.
Not only did hooks validate the powerful structures that I have set in place in my classroom (I realize I've been too hard on myself, as usual), but she also nudges me along to think in even more radical ways. She reminds me that community, trust, and love are transformative energies that change the classroom; reading this book has given me pause to rethink why I am an English teacher and why I work with young people. Yet she does all this with the knowledge that I must also take care of myself, to nurture and love the person and thinker and teacher that I am. She's almost Buddhist in her approach to self-improvement and social change.
While hooks does focus much of her discussion on college professors and the university classroom (as in the other two in the series), so much can translate--or at least it should. hooks empowers me to attempt to realize her healthy, safe, joyful, progressive vision of education in the high school classroom. All three books have been moved to my bedside in their bright, bold covers as a reminder of the awesome transformative possibility education can provide to all--and the gift of this vocation I have been given. Thank you, universe.
Working as a high school teacher in 2011, though, I am often burdened with self-doubt and feelings of failure all of the time. While the classroom is a transformative place for me and will always be so, it is also astoundingly difficult to shoulder the unrealistic expectations, unhealthy pressures and negativity that pervades education these days. While my students continue to be important people in my life, people who I develop great love for, I lately feel I have lost my way a bit. The last couple years have been especially hard, in light of a string of district leaders without guts/vision and my own personal struggle to start a family. A lot of times I felt emotionally weak and unable to give students as much as they deserve.
But that's why I am so grateful for this book. It may seem to some as overstatement, but I think bell hooks has just professionally saved me.
Not only did hooks validate the powerful structures that I have set in place in my classroom (I realize I've been too hard on myself, as usual), but she also nudges me along to think in even more radical ways. She reminds me that community, trust, and love are transformative energies that change the classroom; reading this book has given me pause to rethink why I am an English teacher and why I work with young people. Yet she does all this with the knowledge that I must also take care of myself, to nurture and love the person and thinker and teacher that I am. She's almost Buddhist in her approach to self-improvement and social change.
While hooks does focus much of her discussion on college professors and the university classroom (as in the other two in the series), so much can translate--or at least it should. hooks empowers me to attempt to realize her healthy, safe, joyful, progressive vision of education in the high school classroom. All three books have been moved to my bedside in their bright, bold covers as a reminder of the awesome transformative possibility education can provide to all--and the gift of this vocation I have been given. Thank you, universe.
February 20, 2018
What I like about this book is that it shed light on the importance of emotion and relationship in education at the same time as encouraging critical thinking. Many personal stories are shared to illustrate hooks ideas, so her ideas are very easy to relate to.
January 1, 2024
"El amor puede cambiar el mundo", decía Bell Hooks y también lo ejercitaba en su día a día a través de la enseñanza qué practicó en múltiples universidades a lo largo de su vida. En este libro habla del alimentar el amor por el aprendizaje pero también por el pensamiento propio. De incorporar conocimientos pero también humanizar las mentes y cuerpos de quienes acceden a los aprendizajes. Al proceso suma historias y experiencias personales, haciendo foco, como no podía ser de otra manera, en la forma en que se entrecruzan los aprendizajes con el influjo del machismo y el racismo.
November 12, 2018
“Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom”
When I need to reorient my feminism, I go to bell hooks without question. Her writing has always been insightful and accessible to me in a way that truly spoke to me and awakened my critical feminist lens in a way no other writer did during my formative years. This book has once again proven why bell hooks is a virtually unparalleled cultural critic. This collection of short pedagogical essays truly demonstrate the practical wisdom the title claims. The essays cover a wide range of seemingly mundane topics in education, but hooks’ insights elevate the topics to a hallowed experience. Unfortunately, unlike her usual works, I found this collection a bit difficult to get into because of the syncopated rhythm of the very short chapters and the topics were so wide ranging that sometimes a central theme was lost. But it’s still bell hooks; even her slightly less perfect works are still phenomenal and will stay on my shelf to refer to over and over again.
When I need to reorient my feminism, I go to bell hooks without question. Her writing has always been insightful and accessible to me in a way that truly spoke to me and awakened my critical feminist lens in a way no other writer did during my formative years. This book has once again proven why bell hooks is a virtually unparalleled cultural critic. This collection of short pedagogical essays truly demonstrate the practical wisdom the title claims. The essays cover a wide range of seemingly mundane topics in education, but hooks’ insights elevate the topics to a hallowed experience. Unfortunately, unlike her usual works, I found this collection a bit difficult to get into because of the syncopated rhythm of the very short chapters and the topics were so wide ranging that sometimes a central theme was lost. But it’s still bell hooks; even her slightly less perfect works are still phenomenal and will stay on my shelf to refer to over and over again.
December 2, 2010
bell hooks writing in this book makes me feel pretty darn inspired.
so many beautiful nuggets.
i think its particularly helpful while you're in some kind of structured program. which i am.
and its suited for folks who already have tons of reading, because the chapters are only a few pages.
i will admit some chapters fall flat for me in comparison to others.
favorites so far though... the crying chapter, the discussion about what it means to be a critical thinker, the democratic education chapter, the concept of radical openness.
as a person who has a hard time being in school because sometimes i cant figure out how i'm connected to the world outside my program, i felt relieved by this book. not because its telling me all the answers and making everything ok, but because it gives me some food for thought and a framework in which i can see myself and my classmates. im not alone. im just sad she doesnt live within walking distance.
so many beautiful nuggets.
i think its particularly helpful while you're in some kind of structured program. which i am.
and its suited for folks who already have tons of reading, because the chapters are only a few pages.
i will admit some chapters fall flat for me in comparison to others.
favorites so far though... the crying chapter, the discussion about what it means to be a critical thinker, the democratic education chapter, the concept of radical openness.
as a person who has a hard time being in school because sometimes i cant figure out how i'm connected to the world outside my program, i felt relieved by this book. not because its telling me all the answers and making everything ok, but because it gives me some food for thought and a framework in which i can see myself and my classmates. im not alone. im just sad she doesnt live within walking distance.
April 27, 2025
This book, like the others I’ve read by bell hooks, was packed full of little gems of knowledge. I do think the title was misleading, as not much of it was really about “teaching critical thinking” but if I didn’t think too much about that, I did enjoy reading most of the little essays. There were a few that felt out of place, like the ones on spirituality, eroticism, and touch in the classroom, but most others were inspiring and got the pedagogical brain thinking.
March 26, 2022
the five stars more reflects the impact these books have had as a trilogy than my specific feelings about this single book. (the short essay format, while more digestible doesn’t really fit all of the subjects). as a whole, these books have really made me think differently about learning/teaching and i think we’d be better off if every student/teacher read them or even parts of them.
November 5, 2020
I feel like I've read this or part of it before, but it could also be because I've read some of her other works and some of the themes are recurring. I enjoyed how accessible this is and how many different topics she provides. I do think it's really theoretical without giving specifics teachers can use, which I'm not a fan of, but it seemed to do what she wanted it to do and I imagine especially for the time it was published it was revolutionary. It's definitely a foundational text for critical theory.
April 17, 2023
Totxs deuríem llegir a Bell Hooks. Dona negra que et fa entendre molt millor les vides de les persones negres -i sobretot de les dones negres- als estats units, així com fa veure el poder que té l'educació, ja que de vegades se'ns oblida.
December 23, 2021
é um livro sobre pensamento crítico, mas que também fala de afeto, erotismo, compaixão, humor, espiritualidade, confiança, enfim, de humanidade. queria eu ter tido a oportunidade de ser aluna da bell hooks. mas acho que seus livros acabam sendo servindo como extensão dela. ainda há tanto o que aprender, e ela tanto a nos ensinar.
March 30, 2023
Read this a year ago for an educational pedagogy class and was looking back over it recently. Hooks truly is a beacon of light for all who care about creating a just world of love and community rooted in a liberation attentive to the complex matrices of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
July 21, 2023
Meu primeiro contato com a autora e com certeza vou ler tudo o que puder dela ❤️
January 11, 2018
Most probably a step forward, the book is dated and quite limited in concepts. The first pages turn in circles around the concept of democracy, without any hint of understanding, just swimming in propaganda. Democracy is not another word for the toxic concept of purity from christianity. Democracy simply means mob rule: the people, both smart and stupid, informed and uninformed, all getting one vote. So the ability of critical thinking starts on a dubious base.
A second read and the bad image turns into something else. I started the first read with the utmost respect. Oh, bell hooks who is so humble as to write her own name in the lowercase. Known for activism and civil right. At the end of the first read I was puzzled. Is this what she stands for? Ignorance and hysteria?
At the end of the second read: the book is a waste of time and money. It is crap. Teaching critical thinking from someone who does not get the basic meaning of the words she is wielding to hit others over the head. Ironic? Not. Bull**it. Emotion and a mess of understanding. Starting from the first pages. Democracy should stand for the minorities. But nowhere in the volume bell hooks seem to get what democracy is. Democracy is just a code word. Kosher. Halal. Democracy is supposed to be sweet like manna. Patriarchy? She IS the patriarchy, telling others what they should do, or, god forbid, they are in disharmony with the democracy.
I shouldn't have read it a second time.
A second read and the bad image turns into something else. I started the first read with the utmost respect. Oh, bell hooks who is so humble as to write her own name in the lowercase. Known for activism and civil right. At the end of the first read I was puzzled. Is this what she stands for? Ignorance and hysteria?
At the end of the second read: the book is a waste of time and money. It is crap. Teaching critical thinking from someone who does not get the basic meaning of the words she is wielding to hit others over the head. Ironic? Not. Bull**it. Emotion and a mess of understanding. Starting from the first pages. Democracy should stand for the minorities. But nowhere in the volume bell hooks seem to get what democracy is. Democracy is just a code word. Kosher. Halal. Democracy is supposed to be sweet like manna. Patriarchy? She IS the patriarchy, telling others what they should do, or, god forbid, they are in disharmony with the democracy.
I shouldn't have read it a second time.
Read
April 20, 2010I've been thinking a lot about several different topics in this book, the hierarchy between myself and the young people I work with, compassion, the place of love in my work, building trust. bell hooks seemed to read my mind and address all of these issues, and more. Here are a few of my favorite quotes...
"To honor a teacher with reverence does not require subordination. In a democratic society where there is so much emphasis on equality, there is a tendency to forget that inequality does not necessarily mean domination is taking place...We must be willing to acknowledge the hierarchy that is a real fact of our different status, while at the same time showing that difference in status need not lead to domination or any abuse of power." p. 114
"In dominator culture where bodies are pitted against one another and made to stand in a place of difference that dehumanizes, touch can be an act of resistance." p. 156
"It is essential for our struggle for self-determination that we speak of love, as love is the necessary foundation enabling us to survive the wars, the hardships, and the sickness and the dying with our spirits intact. It is love that allows us to survive whole.......to love ourselves no matter our circumstances is already to stand in the place of victory." p. 176
"To honor a teacher with reverence does not require subordination. In a democratic society where there is so much emphasis on equality, there is a tendency to forget that inequality does not necessarily mean domination is taking place...We must be willing to acknowledge the hierarchy that is a real fact of our different status, while at the same time showing that difference in status need not lead to domination or any abuse of power." p. 114
"In dominator culture where bodies are pitted against one another and made to stand in a place of difference that dehumanizes, touch can be an act of resistance." p. 156
"It is essential for our struggle for self-determination that we speak of love, as love is the necessary foundation enabling us to survive the wars, the hardships, and the sickness and the dying with our spirits intact. It is love that allows us to survive whole.......to love ourselves no matter our circumstances is already to stand in the place of victory." p. 176
November 30, 2014
I skipped Teaching Community because I couldn't find it at the library, so I am reading the trilogy a little out of order, but this book, as all of hooks' books, are easy to follow and welcoming, but still demanding. Teaching Critical Thinking is set up differently from Teaching to Transgress in that she wrote commentaries to answer specific questions people had about teaching in general and her teaching, a choice which shows her commitment to conversation, to love, and to listening.
The book defines critical thinking as the ability to see below the surface and to question what you find there and the books documents how teachers can create environments and practices which promote critical thinking for their students and themselves. I admired every chapter in this volume, but my favorites explored how to infuse humor and eros (Audre Lorde's definition of it) in the classroom, how to decolonize the mind of students and yourself, finding value in all texts while still elevating the art of the marginalized, and teaching with love, or in other words promoting an educational community of care, responsibility, trust, compassion, and patience where radical openness is the norm and students do not fear being freed through education.
The book defines critical thinking as the ability to see below the surface and to question what you find there and the books documents how teachers can create environments and practices which promote critical thinking for their students and themselves. I admired every chapter in this volume, but my favorites explored how to infuse humor and eros (Audre Lorde's definition of it) in the classroom, how to decolonize the mind of students and yourself, finding value in all texts while still elevating the art of the marginalized, and teaching with love, or in other words promoting an educational community of care, responsibility, trust, compassion, and patience where radical openness is the norm and students do not fear being freed through education.
September 1, 2013
I think that this is probably not the ideal place to begin my reading of bell hooks. I guess that this is what happens when you realize one day that you have somehow become a grown up person who calls herself a feminist without reading any bell hooks, and so you hop over to Amazon and grab the first couple of Kindle titles that sound interesting.
Not that this is a bad book by any means. If you do any sort of teaching (and I still do quite a lot of teaching even though "teacher" or "instructor" appears nowhere in my job title and hasn't for years), there are lots of good insights and things that will make you think here. But this doesn't feel like a "bell hooks 101" level book. The essays are short, pithy, and sometimes feel to me like they could use a bit more unpacking, as if they take for granted ideas and arguments that hooks has made at greater length elsewhere.
Not that this is a bad book by any means. If you do any sort of teaching (and I still do quite a lot of teaching even though "teacher" or "instructor" appears nowhere in my job title and hasn't for years), there are lots of good insights and things that will make you think here. But this doesn't feel like a "bell hooks 101" level book. The essays are short, pithy, and sometimes feel to me like they could use a bit more unpacking, as if they take for granted ideas and arguments that hooks has made at greater length elsewhere.
May 24, 2016
I read this as a part of a teaching assistant position to a sociology class where I had to do other work such as lessons and facilitating conversation. I loved mostly every reading and found each chapter to be relevant in my personal life, my academic career, and my life as an activist. Some of my favorite chapters were on empathy, critical thinking, and talking sex through the lens or Audre Lorde's conceptualization of eroticism as a liberatory practice.
September 28, 2012
I love bell hooks, but if you want her on education, then Teaching To Transgress is your jam. Lots of repetition from that book to this one, with only moderate elaboration and a few new ideas brought in. But it's still worth a read.
June 18, 2017
p.2 – Imagine what it is like to be taught by a teacher who does not believe you are fully human. Imagine what it is like to be taught by teachers who do believe that they are racially superior, and who feel that they should not have to lower themselves by teaching students whom they really believe are incapable of learning.
p.14 – Nowadays, most students simply assume that living in a democratic society is their birthright; they do not believe they must work to maintain democracy. [...] They do not read the American thinkers, past and present, who teach is the meaning of democracy. They do not read John Dewey. They do not know his powerful declaration that “democracy has to be born anew in each generation, and education is its midwife.”
p.20 – I like to engage the minds and hearts of students by doing simple writing exercises, sentence completions. We might all write a spontaneous paragraph beginning with a phrase like “my most courageous moment happened when...” Or we might bring a small object to class and all write a short paragraph about its value and importance. Reading these short paragraphs aloud to one another, we have the opportunity to see and hear each unique voice.
p.21 – The root meaning of the word “integrity” is wholeness. Hence, engaged pedagogy makes the classroom a place where wholeness is welcomed and students can be honest, even radically open. They can name their fears, voice their resistance to thinking, speak out, and they can also fully celebrate the moments where everything clicks and collective learning is taking place.
Because engaged pedagogy highlights the importance of independent thinking and each student finding his or her unique voice, this recognition is usually empowering for students.
Engaged pedagogy assumes that every student has a valuable contribution to make to the learning process.
p.24 – Drawing from the radicalism of militant freedom fighters from Africa, South America, China, and all over the world, radicalized Americans, especially those from disfranchised groups, were learning a new language with which to articulate our place in the United States.
p.25 – Amilcar Cabral spoke of the “decolonizing of mentality”
“Liberation” was a term constantly evoked.
p.27 – My primary intent as a teacher is to create an open learning community where students are able to learn how to be critical thinkers able to understand and respond to the material we are studying together.
Since there has not been a radical transformation of education at its roots, education as the practice of freedom is still a pedagogy accepted only by individuals who elect to concentrate their efforts in this direction.
p.35 – I did not understand at the beginning of my teaching career that the majority of students would arrive in the classroom colonized in their minds and imaginations. I was unprepared for the reality that many teachers would view with hostility the idea of education as the practise of freedom.
p.45 – Conversation is always about giving. Genuine conversation is about the sharing of power and knowledge; it is fundamentally a cooperative enterprise.
p.53 – Stories help us to connect to a world beyond the self. In telling our stories we make connections with other stories. Journeying to countries where we may not speak the native tongue, most of us communicate by creating a story, one we may tell without words.
p.55 – Academic classrooms were fundamentally changed by contemporary feminist movement’s insistence that “the personal is political,” that experience is to be valued as much as factual information, and that there is indeed a place in the learning process for telling one’s personal story.
p.57 – By making ourselves vulnerable we show our students that they can take risks, that they can be vulnerable, that they can have confidence that their thoughts, their ideas will be given appropriate consideration and respect.
p.60 – We live in a world where small children are encouraged to imagine, to draw, paint pictures, create imaginary friends, new identities, go wherever the mind takes them. Then, as the child begins to grow, imagination is seen as dangerous, a force that could possibly impede knowledge acquisition. The higher one goes up the ladder of learning, the more one is asked to forget about imagination (unless a creative path has been chosen, the study of art, filmmaking, etc.) and focus on the information that really matters.
In dominator culture the killing off of the imagination serves as a way to repress and contain everyone within the limits of the status quo.
p.61 – Imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can and do use.
p.62 – No matter the subject I am teaching, I always use the writing and reading of spontaneously written paragraphs to stir our collective imagination in the classroom. When we are free to let our minds roam it is far more likely that our imaginations will provide the creative energy that will lead us to new thought and more engaging ways of knowing.
p.74 – when we shift our minds into laughter we move from the left brain to the right brain creating a whole new place for thinking and dreaming, for creating great ideas.
p.106 – Certainly in the study of literature many feminist scholars find it difficult to explain to students our conviction that it is important that they read works by authors who may be racist, sexist, engaged in class elitism, or homophobic.
p.129 – Most teachers recognize firsthand that while new technologies, especially computers, can be great ways of acquiring information, they can also actually assault the senses and dull the imagination if misused. Already studies are being conducted which indicate that young children who have advanced skills using computers are unable to be imaginative.
p.136 – When I graduated from high school, the world was just beginning to really awaken and listen to the voices of black women.
Discovering a passion for working with ideas, for critical thinking, and theory I found a new path for myself. Once again it was anti-racist civil rights struggle and feminist movement which served as the locations where I channelled my desire to do intellectual work, to become a cultural critic.
p.138 – When I think about the question of why to choose an intellectual life in an anti-intellectual society, what immediately comes to mind is the transformative impact of new ideas and knowledge.
p.139 – Either / Or, Søren Kierkegaard: “If I were to wish for anything should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.
p.144 – It is a great gift to write books that aim to decolonize.
p.148 – Ethics of the New Millennium, Dalai Lama: “Spirituality, I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which bring happiness to both self and others.
p.166 – No wonder then that contemporary feminist movement mocked the female search for love and made it seem that power was more important than love. To have equality with men, it was just assumed we would need to forget about love and get our minds and hearts stayed on freedom.
p.168 – Clearly, women have been subordinated in relationships forever and have not found that this brings joy or happiness. The best assurance that any woman will know love is that she loves herself and uses this love as the foundation for full self-realization.
p.186 – In my life becoming a critical thinker helped me survive the traumas encountered in our patriarchal dysfunctional family setting. Seeking to know and understand fully gave me a way to create whole pictures in my mind’s eye, pictures that were not simply formed through reaction to circumstances beyond my control. Understanding the larger frame helped cultivate in me the seeds of mindful awareness and compassion.
p.14 – Nowadays, most students simply assume that living in a democratic society is their birthright; they do not believe they must work to maintain democracy. [...] They do not read the American thinkers, past and present, who teach is the meaning of democracy. They do not read John Dewey. They do not know his powerful declaration that “democracy has to be born anew in each generation, and education is its midwife.”
p.20 – I like to engage the minds and hearts of students by doing simple writing exercises, sentence completions. We might all write a spontaneous paragraph beginning with a phrase like “my most courageous moment happened when...” Or we might bring a small object to class and all write a short paragraph about its value and importance. Reading these short paragraphs aloud to one another, we have the opportunity to see and hear each unique voice.
p.21 – The root meaning of the word “integrity” is wholeness. Hence, engaged pedagogy makes the classroom a place where wholeness is welcomed and students can be honest, even radically open. They can name their fears, voice their resistance to thinking, speak out, and they can also fully celebrate the moments where everything clicks and collective learning is taking place.
Because engaged pedagogy highlights the importance of independent thinking and each student finding his or her unique voice, this recognition is usually empowering for students.
Engaged pedagogy assumes that every student has a valuable contribution to make to the learning process.
p.24 – Drawing from the radicalism of militant freedom fighters from Africa, South America, China, and all over the world, radicalized Americans, especially those from disfranchised groups, were learning a new language with which to articulate our place in the United States.
p.25 – Amilcar Cabral spoke of the “decolonizing of mentality”
“Liberation” was a term constantly evoked.
p.27 – My primary intent as a teacher is to create an open learning community where students are able to learn how to be critical thinkers able to understand and respond to the material we are studying together.
Since there has not been a radical transformation of education at its roots, education as the practice of freedom is still a pedagogy accepted only by individuals who elect to concentrate their efforts in this direction.
p.35 – I did not understand at the beginning of my teaching career that the majority of students would arrive in the classroom colonized in their minds and imaginations. I was unprepared for the reality that many teachers would view with hostility the idea of education as the practise of freedom.
p.45 – Conversation is always about giving. Genuine conversation is about the sharing of power and knowledge; it is fundamentally a cooperative enterprise.
p.53 – Stories help us to connect to a world beyond the self. In telling our stories we make connections with other stories. Journeying to countries where we may not speak the native tongue, most of us communicate by creating a story, one we may tell without words.
p.55 – Academic classrooms were fundamentally changed by contemporary feminist movement’s insistence that “the personal is political,” that experience is to be valued as much as factual information, and that there is indeed a place in the learning process for telling one’s personal story.
p.57 – By making ourselves vulnerable we show our students that they can take risks, that they can be vulnerable, that they can have confidence that their thoughts, their ideas will be given appropriate consideration and respect.
p.60 – We live in a world where small children are encouraged to imagine, to draw, paint pictures, create imaginary friends, new identities, go wherever the mind takes them. Then, as the child begins to grow, imagination is seen as dangerous, a force that could possibly impede knowledge acquisition. The higher one goes up the ladder of learning, the more one is asked to forget about imagination (unless a creative path has been chosen, the study of art, filmmaking, etc.) and focus on the information that really matters.
In dominator culture the killing off of the imagination serves as a way to repress and contain everyone within the limits of the status quo.
p.61 – Imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can and do use.
p.62 – No matter the subject I am teaching, I always use the writing and reading of spontaneously written paragraphs to stir our collective imagination in the classroom. When we are free to let our minds roam it is far more likely that our imaginations will provide the creative energy that will lead us to new thought and more engaging ways of knowing.
p.74 – when we shift our minds into laughter we move from the left brain to the right brain creating a whole new place for thinking and dreaming, for creating great ideas.
p.106 – Certainly in the study of literature many feminist scholars find it difficult to explain to students our conviction that it is important that they read works by authors who may be racist, sexist, engaged in class elitism, or homophobic.
p.129 – Most teachers recognize firsthand that while new technologies, especially computers, can be great ways of acquiring information, they can also actually assault the senses and dull the imagination if misused. Already studies are being conducted which indicate that young children who have advanced skills using computers are unable to be imaginative.
p.136 – When I graduated from high school, the world was just beginning to really awaken and listen to the voices of black women.
Discovering a passion for working with ideas, for critical thinking, and theory I found a new path for myself. Once again it was anti-racist civil rights struggle and feminist movement which served as the locations where I channelled my desire to do intellectual work, to become a cultural critic.
p.138 – When I think about the question of why to choose an intellectual life in an anti-intellectual society, what immediately comes to mind is the transformative impact of new ideas and knowledge.
p.139 – Either / Or, Søren Kierkegaard: “If I were to wish for anything should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.
p.144 – It is a great gift to write books that aim to decolonize.
p.148 – Ethics of the New Millennium, Dalai Lama: “Spirituality, I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which bring happiness to both self and others.
p.166 – No wonder then that contemporary feminist movement mocked the female search for love and made it seem that power was more important than love. To have equality with men, it was just assumed we would need to forget about love and get our minds and hearts stayed on freedom.
p.168 – Clearly, women have been subordinated in relationships forever and have not found that this brings joy or happiness. The best assurance that any woman will know love is that she loves herself and uses this love as the foundation for full self-realization.
p.186 – In my life becoming a critical thinker helped me survive the traumas encountered in our patriarchal dysfunctional family setting. Seeking to know and understand fully gave me a way to create whole pictures in my mind’s eye, pictures that were not simply formed through reaction to circumstances beyond my control. Understanding the larger frame helped cultivate in me the seeds of mindful awareness and compassion.
August 23, 2025
Este libro lo compré sin tantas expectativas, algunos libros que he leído sobre pedagogías me resultan tediosos. Perooooo lo revisé para un curso que di, justo sobre pensamiento crítico y me volaron los sesos. Bell hooks es una gran escritora, ya que trae temas a la mesa que pueden ser incómodos, y a su vez necesarios. La forma de explicar es reflexiva y sencilla; es como charlar con un amigue que te va platicadito pautas del humanismo, lo hace tan bien. También me mamo que fuera fan de Paulito Freire. Es una invitación a pensarnos diferentes, a posicionarnos pero con respeto y responsabilidad. Los espacios escolares necesitan estas enseñanzas para otorgar nuevas perspectivas, que les otorgue otras posibilidades de expansión, qué aprendan más allá que datos y operaciones, sino lo que puedes alcanzar con ello. Yo lo recomiendo muchoooooo. Sí a ti, que me lees. Date una oportunidad de abrazar nuevas ideas. Si te gusta cuestionar el sistema, repensar la forma en que aprendemos y enseñamos, y la indepencia de pensamiento: lea este libro
March 8, 2023
I am so glad I came across this book, great lessons learned.
There were only a few points on the topic of love I do not agree with her. I believe that We deserve to be loved even when we find it hard to love ourselves.
There were only a few points on the topic of love I do not agree with her. I believe that We deserve to be loved even when we find it hard to love ourselves.
April 9, 2023
És el primer llibre que llegeixo d'aquesta autora i maleeixo no haver-ne llegit molts més... molt abans. El text exposa multitud d'experiències de l'autora que, com a docent, ha viscut i que il·lustren bé la manera en què podríem enfrontar-nos a les relacions de poder que existeixen en el món acadèmic. No obstant això, la pega és la limitada aplicabilitat d'aquestes experiències fora del context estatunidenc: és un llibre dels EUA que exigeix una comprensió prèvia molt pregona sobre la història i el funcionament de la societat i del sistema educatiu en aquell país.
February 18, 2025
hooks always inspires me past my capabilities as a new teacher, but that drive to be better is what excites me. I can’t wait to return to her words after years of experience and see how I’ve changed and grown.
November 29, 2025
really great third book for this trilogy on teaching, hooks truly talks about almost anything class related and I find her perspective so enlightening, I hope to own this one day & the rest of her pedagogy books
April 1, 2023
A scuola studiamo Leibniz e non bell hooks. Non c’è nient’altro da dire sull’androcentrismo bianco.
August 15, 2023
sinto que com a bell hooks eu fico MUITO animada no início da leitura mas a empolgação vai caindo no decorrer do livro. os últimos textos li me arrastando.
November 2, 2025
very good. it is less of a how-to guide and more of her musings on how to create a culture in your classroom that promotes dialogue and safety, as those are both necessary for taking academic risks.
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