Bodies and liberatory practices
hooks collaborates with Ron Scapp on this amazing chapter called "Building a Teaching Community." There is so much here, I found myself underlining and writing plenty of notes in the margins, fully enagaged. Thus is the goal of liberatory pedagogy as hooks sees it, creating a space where students can become fully engaged.
I've really been reminded here of the importance of bodies. Is teaching not really "work" because it is supposed to be mental and not physical? How do our assumptions of the way we are supposed to be physically in the classroom determine the kind of work we can do there? What if we can move around, use the space differently, uses spaces outside of the classroom? What if we can be with our students rather than occupying only the front of the classroom? And how does the way I look and move in the classroom contribute to my delivery of the material? How does teaching in the computer lab change this, and what are the assumptions of how to use the space in the computer classroom? And what do I do with this?
That reminds me so much of my Women's Studies class last Spring. I liked the professor, and she presented a lot of interesting readings on feminism that were progressive and liberatory. But we could not engage them in any productive way. We could barely enter a conversation, and whatever started was constantly shutting down other conversation. It was awful. I'm sure I'm guilty of this as well at times. Why is it so easy to admit the old ideas aren't working, and yet not be able to change them in our physical practices?
I've really been reminded here of the importance of bodies. Is teaching not really "work" because it is supposed to be mental and not physical? How do our assumptions of the way we are supposed to be physically in the classroom determine the kind of work we can do there? What if we can move around, use the space differently, uses spaces outside of the classroom? What if we can be with our students rather than occupying only the front of the classroom? And how does the way I look and move in the classroom contribute to my delivery of the material? How does teaching in the computer lab change this, and what are the assumptions of how to use the space in the computer classroom? And what do I do with this?
I know so many prefessors who are progressive in their politics, who have been willing to change their cirriculum, but who in fact have resolutely refused to change the nature of their pedagogical practices... they will work with texts, work with the ideas they share, in ways that suggest there is ultimately no difference between this work and more conservative work emerging from folks privileged by class, race, or gender. (140-41)
That reminds me so much of my Women's Studies class last Spring. I liked the professor, and she presented a lot of interesting readings on feminism that were progressive and liberatory. But we could not engage them in any productive way. We could barely enter a conversation, and whatever started was constantly shutting down other conversation. It was awful. I'm sure I'm guilty of this as well at times. Why is it so easy to admit the old ideas aren't working, and yet not be able to change them in our physical practices?
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