In Teaching to Transgress, the late bell hooks writes, “As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence.” For hooks, ‘excitement’ is key to learning, not merely because it generates entertaining learning spaces, but because learning itself (as hooks defines it) is impossible without emotional investment.
Importantly, it’s not simply an educator’s job to drum up excitement in her students, but students as well must actively contribute to the construction of an active and engaging classroom. What, then, is required of us when we “teach to transgress”? How might we take into context as well social and economic barriers to learning?
This richly interactive course will prime students to engage with how academic material is taught, moving beyond simply the content of what is taught. They will explore how a transgressive classroom might be constructed, and how they––as educators-in-training––might develop the tools to do so.
Students should be committed not just to critical reading and writing, but to gaining experience teaching lessons of their own design to their peers throughout the semester, whereupon they will receive critical feedback and develop alternate ways forward.
Learning Outcomes:
- Gain familiarity with decolonial pedagogy
- Design and execute lesson plans
- Apply critical concepts from reading into active teaching strategy
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Students should have completed prior advanced level work in SCT, CAPA, or EDU. Please email An with information about previous relevant courses (anduplan@bennington.edu).
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
F, 4:10PM - 6:00PM & F, 7:00PM - 8:50PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 12
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 4000 , All courses , Education , Four Credit , Fully In-Person , New Courses , Updates
Tags: