“No matter the subject matter ostensibly being taught, the real point is to help the students find themselves, and find their own passion. Anything else is to lead them astray, to do them actual damage.”
- Derrick Jensen, from Walking on Water
As bell hooks notes right off the bat in Teaching to Transgress, “Progressive, holistic education, ‘engaged pedagogy’ is more demanding than conventional critical or feminist pedagogy” (15). This is because, as hooks adds, the emphasis within engaged pedagogy necessarily falls upon “well-being”—and cultivating wellbeing necessarily requires relating to the student as a person. A "traveler" rather than an object, a passive receptacle, an audience. It is challenging to de-center the classroom, to dismantle traditional power hierarchies and inspire the committed involvement of every member of the classroom community. What hooks and Plevin (and, indeed, many writers we've read this semester) encourage is the commitment of educators (us!) to the idea that the classroom is a place for liberation rather than domination.
Some students are reluctant to break away from old paradigms and have great difficulty finding their voice in the classroom. They have a lot of trouble "getting" that the class is about self-discovery, them, and not merely teacher/authority figure's expectations. hooks describes the difficulty of rethinking traditional classroom roles: “I saw for the first time that there can be, and usually is, some degree of pain involved in giving up old ways of thinking and knowing and learning new approaches. I respect that pain. And I include recognition of it now when I teach, that is to say, I teach about shifting paradigms and talk about the discomfort it can cause” (43). Why else is engaged pedagogy-- liberation pedagogy-- difficult? Because it asks the student to accomplish is no less than a full examination of his or her individual set of cultural assumptions and practices. Oh, and the teacher too. Engaged pedagogy requires more participation than the standard "students sit and stare, teacher talks" method because there is simply so much more thinking that has to happen.
The transformative possibility of engaged pedagogy, as both Plevin and hooks describe it, is learning to relate to the “other” in a meaningful way, whether that “other” is a stand of old growth trees or a person from a different culture/race. Both authors relate this pedagogical concept to Paulo Friere’s theory of "conscientization." Plevin quotes Bertoff to clarify Friere’s idea: “Conscientization means discovering yourself as a subject, but it is not SELF-consciousness; it is consciousness of consciousness, intent upon the world” (365, qtd. in Plevin 151). In other words, we should encourage our students to not only be aware of themselves and their own voice, but to also be aware of contexts-- place, "whiteness," class, i.e. their own positionality. Conscientization is also an inherently radical idea because is encourages the awareness of contexts rather than rules and relationships based upon communication rather than domination. Achieving an awareness of positionality is, I think, the reason for asking students to pursue writing projects from a point of inquiry, to examine their own argument practices and strategies, and to rethink their relationship to their Life-Place.
I had a student admit to me that her high school teacher had advised her to “lie” in her papers since her teachers wouldn’t know her name or care to know her opinions. Again and again in class and in conference, students confess to me that in order to express their opinion they have to quiet certain voices in their head (namely former teachers or authority figures), that taught them to value information regurgitation and sameness rather than creative synthesis. The truth seems to be that institutionalized education in the United States inflicts way more emotional and intellectual harm than inspiration or empowerment. Perhaps this is why some of my students are so resistant to thinking-- everything about their schooling up to this point has reinforced that prejudice. I guess what I'm saying is I agree with bell hooks; we can radically benefit the well-being of our students by inviting the transgression of mental boundaries and encouraging authentic critical engagement (praxis!) both in and out of the classroom.
Adrianna,
ReplyDeleteI was also drawn to bell hooks’ ideas about the importance and challenges involved when attempting to “de-center the classroom, to dismantle traditional power hierarchies, and inspire the committed involvement of every member of the classroom community.” I loved that you highlighted the obstacles inherent in not only re-structuring classroom power dynamics, but also in the uneasiness our students feel when challenging ideas that have become familiar and comfortable to them. I underlined the same section of bell hooks’ book you quoted about the painful experience of giving up old notions and concepts we have learned to accept. I agree that we need to re-evaluate the effectiveness of totalitarian teaching practices while learning to “respect the pain” as bell hooks has(43). I think this uneasiness can be mistaken for resistance to challenging the status quo, although this can be true to a certain extent, I don’t think we should let it keep us from exploring tactics to addressing hierarchies that can keep our classrooms from attempting to participate in an engaged pedagogy. To accomplish this bell hooks believes that we need to concentrate on the things that connect us to our students, rather than what separates us. She does this by stating: “I think that a feeling of community creates a sense that there is shared commitment and a common good that binds us” (40). What this means is that we focus on not how we are there to only teach our students, but how we engage our students in our classrooms by acknowledging the fact that we are there to learn too. This is what I think bell hooks and you mean by empowering our students.
I have tried to be conscious of letting my students know when they surprise me or help me think of something in a new way. I want them to know that their unique perspective adds to our overall classroom environment. There have been plenty of times that I have asked them to help me start a list on the board for one reason or another and have had them give me ideas and insights I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. I have told them before that when they refuse to participate they hold back the class by not letting their opinions and ideas be heard. I know this is true because I have had several students turn in freewrites with eloquently thoughtful reflections that they never exhibit during class. I agree that we need to push against the idea that academia is about producing the same kind of thinking that all leads to one answer, I want my students to know that there are multiple answers and they can all be right.
Adriana,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you highlighted hooks' and Plevin's discussion of Friere's theory of "conscientization" and the idea that students should be aware of their own positionality as it is shaped by place and social context. This is a really interesting idea that I've been reading about it for my I-search and that I think sheds light on concrete ways to promote engaged pedagogy in the classroom. By prompting students consider how their "voice" is shaped by the influences of their world, we are encouraging them to think beyond manufactured, right-or-wrong traditional classroom standards. And while it will undoubtedly be painful for students at first, as hooks suggests, the payoff should be worth the pain. For me, the life place essay was the only unit where I felt like I really encouraged students in this vein and I think it will be challenging to incorporate the theory (make it explicit) next semester in the PAA and Op-Ed units
Adrianna, I think you’ve hit on some of hooks’ most pivotal points, and those that we can readily consider incorporating into our classrooms. Michelle, your suggestion “to accomplish this [by addressing hierarchies in the classroom] bell hooks believes that we need to concentrate on the things that connect us to our students, rather than what separates us” is key to exploring the variety of differences (gender, class, race, etc.) that set us apart. One way that I found useful was that she often has her students read paragraphs that they have written out loud to a partner in class, something I’m sure she would also recommend the instructor takes part in—sharing in the vulnerability we are asking our students to experience. “It has been my experience that one way to build community in the classroom is to recognize the value of each individual voice. In my classes, students keep journals and often write paragraphs during class which they read to one another” (40). With all of our fastwriting, I had never imagined the power involved in allowing my students personal voices be heard aloud in that way and I think it is something I would like to incorporate. hooks goes on to say “…to listen to one another, is an exercise in recognition” (41). Although I feel there is quite a bit of that happening in our small and large group discussions, there is something more that this exercise would allow us to develop on such a small-scale level.
ReplyDeleteReading Bell Hooks makes me more aware of the "type" of comments I say to the class. I don't want to be that Authority figure that these students end up quoting saying about what writing isn't about. I've really tried to reflect back and think if I can put anything I've said into this category. I've tried to mention to them what writing "is" about. I hope they remember some of that. That would be nice.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest lesson I have taken away my studies in Post-Colonial literature and cultural studies is that the dominate culture always ask it's participate in the processes that keep the status quo in power. This participation isn't always on the surface or something contrived. It takes heightened awareness to recognize when you are part of the problem, or "disease" as BH calls it. I listen to Bell Hooks because she's the antithesis and has the rhetorical awareness to identify flaws within the systemic and personal pedagogies, and has the courage to voice them.