bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins) presented by Saby Labor 4/21/11

1. bell hooks(Gloria Jean Watkins)presented by Saby Labor 4/21/11 Teaching to Transgress

2. Overview • Objectives • Community Guidelines • Who is bell hooks? • Activity: What is engaged pedagogy? • Applying a Sociological Lens • What does engaged pedagogy look like? • What does it Mean to Be a Critical Educator? • Evaluation LABOR

3. Objectives • The students will… • Apply concepts of engaged pedagogy and multicultural education to their own experiences. • Engage in self-reflection of their educational journey and its influences on their role as educators/learners. • Understand education from a critical sociological perspective. • The instructor will… • Gain an understanding of the course material through dialogue, shared narratives, and shared power. • of shared power and recognize individual student voices. LABOR

4. Community Guidelines(this example established by diverse undergraduate student group) • Use “I” statements • 1 diva, 1 mic (one voice at a time) • Assume good intent • Use inclusive language • “don’t yuck my yum” • Confidentiality • Meet them where ‘they are’ • Mutual respect • Step up, Step back LABOR

5. bell hooks • Context of my personal educational experience with bell hooks • Black feminist critic of "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy“ • A writer, a feminist theorist, and a cultural critic • Known as one of the most accessible academics in feminist writing • Her pseudonym, her great-grandmother's name, celebrates female legacies and is in lower case because "it is the substance of my books, not who is writing them, that is important." • “Feminist movement created a revolution when it demanded respect for women’s academic work, recognition of that work past and present, and an end to gender biases in curriculum and pedagogy.” • Feminism is for Everyone: Passionate Politics, 2000 LABOR

6. Questions bell hooks raises • Why is it necessary to talk about race? • It is inherent within traditional models of education that teachers have power…The question is how will you use it? • How does our own processes of self-awareness and self-reflection influence engaged pedagogy? LABOR

7. Activity: What is engaged pedagogy? LABOR

8. Applying a Sociological Lens…“White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy” • Video: cultural criticism and transformation pt 2 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ-XVTzBMvQ LABOR

9. Applying a Sociological Lens…College as a Total Institution • Revealed features of college society that are similar to mental hospitals • Total institution- self-contained societies that are designed to service all the needs of the people residing within their boundaries • All aspects of life conducted in same place under the same authority • Authority figures have tremendous power within the institution's confines • Total institutions are also largely self-contained and are designed so day-to-day interaction can occur independent of outside society • A consequence of building structures into college society, students are structurally discouraged from interacting with people outside of its confines • Strongly imposed division of power lends to superiority and ability to structure encounters • How is the classroom a total institution? LABOR

10. What does engaged pedagogy look like in practice?Teaching Theories of Difference Through Popular Culture video: cultural criticism and transformation pt 1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s LABOR

11. In an education system which… • Denigrates notions of wholeness and upholds idea of mind/body split • Encourages students and teachers to see no connection between life practices, habits of being, and the roles of professors • Reinforces existing systems of domination • Positions learning as a rote assembly-line based on coercion LABOR

12. …then we have a lot to think about as educators and learners • Education reinforces systems of domination. What are other systems of domination? • How is the college a “total institution”? How will you use the power assigned as an educator to facilitate critical dialogue and learning environments? • What role will self-actualization and reflection play in your institutional pedagogy? • How will you facilitate unlearning as a platform for holistic and critical learning? • How will you integrate shared narratives and shared voices in your classroom? LABOR

13. Transformative Practices • “Building common ground” or creation of collective guidelines to build community • Teaching gender using itunes • Article: http://www.sociologysource.com/home/2010/9/12/teaching-gender-with-itunes.html • Teaching hegemony • Article in handout: http://www.sociologysource.com/home/2010/9/27/teaching-hegemony.html • Adjust your rubric to reflect emphasis on participation to encourage student voices • Using autho ethnography to teach multiculturalism • See handout • http://naha1.edublogs.org/2008/03/07/auto-ethnography-an-empowering-methodology-for-educators/ LABOR

14. What does it mean to be a critical educator? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaTQ5g8Prog&feature=related • “I entered the classroom with the conviction that it was crucial for me and every other student to be an active participant, not a passive consumer...education as the practice of freedom.... education that connects the will to know with the will to become. Learning is a place where paradise can be created.” • hooks • Sites for critical education • Feminist classrooms • Childrens’ literature • Colleges and universities? LABOR

15. Evaluation • An email will be sent out with a short online evaluation form (or you can follow the link below) • https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGNVTHJzeFZScXQ5WlNoS2liTnU3MGc6MQ Thank you  LABOR