Since starting this unit, an occurring theme that I have been considering and reflecting on in my teaching practice, is that of shared vulnerability. It strikes me that vulnerability is very much part of the practice of teaching. In my experience, on the PgCert, and in the first time for a while, I have considered my own vulnerability as a practitioner. This has led me to consider more acutely the vulnerability of those I work with on a daily basis, the students.
I discussed my interest here with my personal tutor, Karen Matthewman. Karen kindly suggested that I look further at “embodied experiences…particularly about bell hooks, and how she talks about the importance of being vulnerable in the classroom”.
This enquiry led me to an article titled Teaching to Transgress: Subjective Educational Experience in the Model of Engaged Pedagogy of Bell Hooks. The article unpacks bell hook’s 1994 seminal book, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. This book is from the position of a black feminist critique, which highlights the importance of social constructs such as race and gender as being implicit in affecting student’s ability to feel included in the education system.
I was particularly interested in understanding more on the model of engaged pedagogy and understood from reading the article, that, according to Watkins how a subject acts in the social environment, such as education, are never neutral, but are, as the author highlights, “filled with mechanisms for solidifying and transmitting specific inequalities” (Watkins, 2019, p. 12).
hooks posits that it is through inclusive teaching, including students in the process of teaching, that a transformation can take place, through a subjective experience of education. This, as I understand it, is about trying to connect with students, understanding their individual positions, asking them to participate in the teaching, so teaching ‘with’ them as individuals, rather than teaching ‘at’ them, as a homogenous group. This, according to hooks “is a central goal of transformative pedagogy” (hooks, 1994, p. 39). So, to be more inclusive, teachers need to consider how to create spaces for shared vulnerability, so that there is an opening up of the teaching space, where students feel more included. This is something that I want to work on, as a test, in a teaching activity that I will refer to in my case studies. The reason behind this, is that I feel that there is a void in how tutors continually push students to perform (in assessments, both formative and summative), to take risks, to question their own intentions, and to be open to feedback in tutorials, while tutors take no risks. I would like this to change, by creating a space for more inclusive practices in the teaching space.
References:
Email conversation with Karen Matthewman, 03/02/25.
Watkins, G J. (2019) Teaching to Transgress: Subjective Educational Experience in the Model of Engaged Pedagogy of Bell Hooks. CULTURE – SOCIETY – EDUCATION NO. 1 (15) POZNAN.
Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. London: Routledge.