Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of HopeIn recent years, mass media h...

Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

In recent years, mass media have told the public that feminist movement did not work, that affirmative action was a mistake, that combined with cultural studies all alternative programs and departments are failing to educate students. To counter these public narratives, it is vital that we challenge all this misinformation. That challenge cannot be simply to call attention to the fact that it is false; we also must give an honest and thorough account of the constructive interventions that have occurred as a consequence of all our efforts to create justice in education. We must highlight all the positive, life-transforming rewards that have been the outcome of collective efforts to change our society, especially education, so that it is not a site for the enactment of domination in any form.

In the last twenty years, educators who have dared to study and learn new ways of thinking and teaching so that the work we do does not reinforce systems of domination, of imperialism, racism, sexism or class elitism have created a pedagogy of hope. Hopefulness empowers us to continue our work for justice even as the forces of injustice may gain greater power for a time. As teachers we enter the classroom with hope. My hope emerges from those places of struggle where I witness individuals positively transforming their lives and the world around them. Educating is always a vocation rooted in hopefulness.

Adapted from hooks, b. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. London/New York: Routledge, 2003.

The text above was written in 2003 but it is absolutely up-to-date. The reason we can state that is because: