Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Pedagogy is the technical term for teaching. The author Bell Hooks informs readers in the introduction that she believes that for the best teaching, people in either role in the relationship need to accept that there is an element of the sacred in education. When teachers proceed based upon the idea that they are educating for the purposes of nurturing free adults, then the profession is best served, and so are the students. Participation is crucial for the most effective educational process, as far as the author is concerned. She thinks that the best instructional methods encourage the right amount of participation. One vital element of this is to appreciate the value of all of the students within a given classroom, rather than forcing or encouraging students to ignore everyone other than the instructor. In her own experience, the author found...