In Teaching Critical Thinking, renowned cultural critic and
progressive educator bell hooks addresses some of the most compelling
issues facing teachers in and out of the classroom today.
In a series of short, accessible, and enlightening essays, hooks
explores the confounding and sometimes controversial topics that
teachers and students have urged her to address since the publication of
the previous best-selling volumes in her Teaching series, Teaching to
Transgress and Teaching Community. The issues are varied and broad,
from whether meaningful teaching can take place in a large classroom
setting to confronting issues of self-esteem. One professor, for
example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive
authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative
racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the
classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for
learning.
Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks
discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn
from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the
importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a
democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she
celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is
provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read
for anyone who is at all interested in education today.
