Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Ten years ago, bell hooks astonished readers with Teachingto Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Now comes Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope- a powerful, visionary work that will enrich our teaching and our lives. Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences. Teaching, she explains, can happen anywhere, any time - not just in college classrooms but in churches, in bookstores, in homes where people get together to share ideas that affect their daily lives.

In Teaching Communitybell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Communitytells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.

Teachers of vision know that democratic education can never be confined to a classroom. Teaching - so often undervalued in our society -- can be a joyous and inclusive activity. bell hooks shows the way. "When teachers teach with love, combining care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust, we are often able to enter the classroom and go straight to the heart of the matter, which is knowing what to do on any given day to create the best climate for learning."

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface: Teaching and Living in Hope (p. ix)
• Teach 1 The Will to Learn: The World as Classroom (p. 1)
• Teach 2 Time Out: Classrooms without Boundaries (p. 13)
• Teach 3 Talking Race and Racism (p. 25)
• Teach 4 Democratic Education (p. 41)
• Teach 5 What Happens When White People Change (p. 51)
• Teach 6 Standards (p. 67)
• Teach 7 How Can We Serve (p. 83)
• Teach 8 Moving beyond Shame (p. 93)
• Teach 9 Keepers of Hope: Teaching in Communities (p. 105)
• Teach 10 Progressive Learning: A Family Value (p. 117)
• Teach 11 Heart to Heart: Teaching with Love (p. 127)
• Teach 12 Good Sex: Passionate Pedagogy (p. 139)
• Teach 13 Spirituality in Education (p. 157)
• Teach 14 This Is Our Life: Teaching toward Death (p. 165)
• Teach 15 Spiritual Matters in the Classroom (p. 175)
• Teach 16 Practical Wisdom (p. 185)
• Index (p. 199)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Fans of hooks's earlier works, especially the landmark Teaching To Transgress, will welcome this new collection of essays on combating racism and sexism in education. Drawing extensively on her personal experiences as both student and teacher, hooks articulates a vision of democratic, progressive education that focuses on the classroom as a "life-sustaining and mind-expanding" place. As with her previous books, her latest is passionate, opinionated, and challenging. While her statement that a "[commitment] to teaching well is a commitment to service" will attract some, her claims that racism, sexism, and class conflict are driving forces in the curriculum and in relations between teachers and students will unsettle many. Despite its challenging nature (or, more likely, because of it), the collection will interest students of education, ethnic and cultural studies, and women's studies. Recommended for academic collections.-Scott Walter, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Readers of hooks's prolific body of work on feminism, racism, cultural politics, art and education will find much that is familiar here. Grounded in autobiography and storytelling and written for an intelligent lay audience, these essays exhort readers to keep up the struggle in difficult times. A distinguishing characteristic of hooks's work is the challenge to recognize, confront and overcome "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy," a recurring phrase that captures her hallmark theme: oppression occurs at the intersections of race, gender and the dominant economic system. This work updates her thinking with post-September 11 reflections on domination and hope, and contains refreshingly original thinking about spirituality, family values and even erotic relationships between professors and students. hooks, a self-defined "[l]eftist dissident feminist black intellectual," embodies the clash of 20th-century cultural politics. She writes candidly about her own racially segregated youth, her struggles to overcome discrimination in the academic workplace and her efforts to find common ground with white feminists. hooks's voice is unique in that she manages to balance a relentless critique of oppressive forces in society with the open invitation to participate in "beloved communities where there is no domination." Containing more inspiration than concrete strategies, the book may leave practicing teachers wanting more in the way of specifics about how to practice antiracist pedagogy, transform classrooms and bring about a just society. But the author's clear and consistent voice for progressive, democratic education adds an important dimension to society's thinking about shared values and the creation of a loving and fair community. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Hooks brings passion and an updated perspective from her Teaching to Transgress (1994) to this challenging look at the failings of educational institutions and how we can bring hope and renewal to teaching. Drawing on her own experiences, she melds anecdote, autobiography, and critical analysis in an exploration of a range of issues, from educational standards to the unchallenged use of education in support of capitalist patriarchy. For truly effective education, she advocates partnerships between students and teachers and the expansion of teaching beyond school settings to include community organizations and other more public arenas. Furthermore, noting the reluctance to discuss social injustices, hooks advocates teaching as an opportunity to confront racial and sexual biases, and to heighten consciousness of students across race, ethnicity, and sexual orientations. In a chapter on the attitudes of whites regarding racism, hooks demonstrates that true racial equality requires profound individual efforts to understand the truth of our essential humanness. For readers interested in cultural criticism and educational issues, hooks offers her usual thought-provoking viewpoint. --Vanessa Bush Copyright 2003 Booklist

Author notes provided by Syndetics

bell hooksis a writer and critic who has taught most recently at Berea College in Kentucky, where she is Distinguished Professor in Residence. Among her many books are the feminist classic Ain't I A Woman, the dialogue (with Cornel West) Breaking Bread, the children's books Happy to Be Nappyand Be Boy Buzz,the memoir Bone Black(Holt), and the general interest titles All About Love, Rock My Soul, and Communion. Her many books published with Routledge include Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom,Belonging: A Culture of Place,We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, Where We Stand: Class Matters, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, andReel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies.