Amir H. Payberah - 2025-04-01

What if the classroom could be a space of liberation rather than control? What would it mean to teach in a way that engages both the mind and the heart? How can we create learning environments that reflect the realities of race, class, gender, and language?

These are some of the questions bell hooks explores in Teaching to Transgress, an influential book we read in the previous session of our book club, which explores the potential of education to challenge oppression and imagine new possibilities. To this end, hooks calls for engaged pedagogy, a way of teaching that involves the whole self: mind, body, and emotion and argues that real learning happens through dialogue, reflection, and mutual care.

She highlights how race, class, and gender shape classroom experiences, often forcing marginalized students to conform to dominant norms. Hooks urges educators to acknowledge these differences and create more welcoming and inclusive spaces. Language is another key theme that hooks addresses in the book. She critiques how standard English is used to silence marginalized voices and celebrates Black vernacular as a powerful expression of identity and resistance. She argues that embracing language diversity is central to liberatory education. Hooks also describes how theory became a tool for healing, helping her process injustice and imagine change. But she insists that theory must stay connected to real life, not remain abstract or elitist.

Building on these insights, hooks calls for a vision of feminist solidarity that aligns with her broader critique of education. This solidarity must be rooted in honesty and discomfort, not symbolic inclusion, especially when addressing the racial and class-based divisions that often go unspoken in feminist and academic spaces. For hooks, education is never neutral; it is emotional, political, and full of possibility. When grounded in love, courage, and a commitment to justice, the classroom becomes a space where freedom can be both imagined and practiced.

You can find a summary of the book here.