From Publishers Weekly
Cultural theorist hooks means to challenge preconceptions, and it is a rare reader who will be able to walk away from her without considerable thought. Despite the frequent appearance of the dry word "pedagogy," this collection of essays about teaching is anything but dull or detached. hooks begins her meditations on class, gender and race in the classroom with the confession that she never wanted to teach. By combining personal narrative, essay, critical theory, dialogue and a fantasy interview with herself (the latter artificial construct being the least successful), hooks declares that education today is failing students by refusing to acknowledge their particular histories. Criticizing the teaching establishment for employing an over-factualized knowledge to deny and suppress diversity, hooks accuses colleagues of using "the classroom to enact rituals of control that were about domination and the unjust exercise of power." Far from a castigation of her field, however, Teaching to Transgress is full of hope and excitement for the possibility of education to liberate and include. She is a gentle, though firm, critic, as in the essay "Holding My Sister's Hand," which could well become a classic about the distrust between black and white feminists. While some will find her rejection of certain difficult theory narrow-minded, it is a small flaw in an inspired and thought-provoking collection. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Feminist writer and English professor hooks shares insights, strategies, and critical reflections on pedagogical practice.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Contemporary Education
"...passionately defines the Black feminist point of view that needs to be reflected upon in classroom discussions."


Femisnist Bookstore News - Januanry/February 1999
"...one of the best descriptions of the purpose and function of education and the educator that I've ever read."


Canadian Home Economics Journal
"Teaching to Transgress is useful as a platform for a critique of current notions and practices of teaching and learning."


Book Description
bell hooks, one of America's leading black intellectuals, shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratcic participation.

ANNOTATION

Widely admired as a leading black intellectual, hooks is also an inspired teacher. Here, she offers her ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratic participation. These essays face squarely the problems of today's classrooms, including racism and sexism. Ms. hooks sees the gift of freedom--the freedom to think critically--as a teacher's most important goal.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

bell hooks, one of America's leading black intellectuals, shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratcic participation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Cultural theorist hooks means to challenge preconceptions, and it is a rare reader who will be able to walk away from her without considerable thought. Despite the frequent appearance of the dry word ``pedagogy,'' this collection of essays about teaching is anything but dull or detached. hooks begins her meditations on class, gender and race in the classroom with the confession that she never wanted to teach. By combining personal narrative, essay, critical theory, dialogue and a fantasy interview with herself (the latter artificial construct being the least successful), hooks declares that education today is failing students by refusing to acknowledge their particular histories. Criticizing the teaching establishment for employing an over-factualized knowledge to deny and suppress diversity, hooks accuses colleagues of using ``the classroom to enact rituals of control that were about domination and the unjust exercise of power.'' Far from a castigation of her field, however, Teaching to Transgress is full of hope and excitement for the possibility of education to liberate and include. She is a gentle, though firm, critic, as in the essay ``Holding My Sister's Hand,'' which could well become a classic about the distrust between black and white feminists. While some will find her rejection of certain difficult theory narrow-minded, it is a small flaw in an inspired and thought-provoking collection. (Dec.)

Library Journal