Summary and Analysis of Article: Bell Hooks' Teaching to Transgress

This assignment presents a summary and analysis of Bell Hooks' article, 'Teaching to Transgress.' The summary highlights Hooks' reflections on her career aspirations, the societal expectations placed upon black women, and her experiences within the academic system. The analysis delves into the themes of racial discrimination, the challenges faced by black women in education, and Hooks' development of a personal pedagogy focused on equality and social justice. The assignment explores the struggle between her desire to be a writer and the pressure to conform to traditional roles. It also examines how she used her role as a teacher to challenge societal norms and promote critical thinking among her students, emphasizing the importance of human rights and equal opportunities. The assignment adheres to the guidelines of the assignment brief, including the required sections of summary and response, a works cited/references page, and adherence to MLA/APA format.

Running Head: SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note
Summary:
The article “Teaching to Transgress” is a self-reflection. The narrator in the article,
“Teaching to Transgress” desired to be a writer from the very beginning of her life. However, her
life was fastened between the conventions, that, being a black women she required to follow the
foot prints of most of the black women of her community who used to serve as teachers at
Booker T.Washington (Hooks). Thus this article, “Teaching to Transgress” talks about the
conventions regarding profession of black women and how it affected the career of the narrator
who aspired to be a writer since her early childhood (Hooks). Through this article the narrator
elaborated the anxieties as well as challenges she encountered. In the beginning, the nature
depicted a situation where the English department is about to take the decision whether or not the
narrator is liable to be granted a tenure as a teacher. This final decision taken by English
department, would be a life-transforming decision for the narrator. If the department granted her
the tenure she would be trapped into the academy as well as into the profession of teaching for
the rest of her life. If the tenure was not granted to her, she would be able to dedicate herself
completely to her dream profession, which was writing. Pathos, in this article reflected through
the “life-threatening” depression into which the narrator engrossed, after knowing that, she had
received the tenure (Hooks). The narrator conveyed that, being a black woman, it was pre-

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destined for her, to become a teacher. The distinction that the white people can adopt professions
as per their potentialities, but the black people, especially black women are not able to choose
profession as per their potentialities. Ethos in the article reflected when the narrator accepted the
decision of the department and began to develop her own pedagogy for the purpose of generating
her own ideas of equality, especially between the black as well as white people. In other words,
the narrator with her own pedagogy attempted to establish the fact within the minds of the
students, that the black as well as white people are equal, both are born with equal potentialities,
both of the black as well as white people possess diverse potentialities and have the rights to
choose their own profession as per their individual taste, preferences as well as potentialities
(Hooks).
Analysis:
Analyzing the article, “Teaching to Transgress”, it can be stated that, this article depicted,
the struggle of the narrator initially, along with her dreams of being a writer, which she had
nourished since her childhood. Further, this article pointed out that, most of the teachers in
Booker T. Washington, are black women. In this way this article indicated to the myth created
by the society that, black girls are pre-destined to be teacher, especially to the schools for the
blacks. This was again followed by the narrator’s unintentional entrance into the profession of a
teacher, in spite of her earnest desire to be a writer. An in depth analysis of the article will also
reveal that the shattering of the narrator’s dream of becoming a writer; could not stop the narrator
to generate her beautiful thoughts among the young students. Rather, the narrator found her own
way to convey her own perspective as well as thoughts, which she could have communicated
thorough her own books, if she would have got the chance to become a writer. In other words,
even after becoming the victim of the conventions regarding the profession of black women, and

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the destruction of her dreams of being a writer; the writer kept on conveying her beautiful
thoughts to the students to transgress the conventions fuelling racial discriminations as well as
inequality. The narrator aspired to be a writer always and possessed the capacity of reflective
thinking, critical thinking especially on the matter of racial discrimination, inequality among the
black as well as whites. She did not regret for not being able to communicate or generate her
thoughts through her writing, rather she tried to implant her noble thoughts into the minds of the
students by designing the educational pedagogy on her own. In her own pedagogy she included
topics like human rights, benefits of establishing equal rights in the country irrespective of the
race as well as gender. Her life as well as fate might not let her become a writer and convey her
thoughts to eliminate all kinds of discrimination from the society and establishment of a just
society; but, with the help of her teaching, she herself transgressed and helped the students
transgress all the myth, convention as well as restrictions fuelling the discrimination between
Whites and Blacks in terms of equal rights.

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References:
Hooks, Bell. Teaching to transgress. Routledge, 2014.

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Economics 9.2 (2017): 1-22.
Dolezsar, Cynthia M., et al. "Perceived racial discrimination and hypertension: a comprehensive
systematic review." Health Psychology 33.1 (2014): 20.
Armstrong, Katrina, et al. "Prior experiences of racial discrimination and racial differences in
health care system distrust." Medical Care 51.2 (2013): 144.
Lee, Debbiesiu L., and Soyeon Ahn. "The relation of racial identity, ethnic identity, and racial
socialization to discrimination–distress: A meta-analysis of Black Americans." Journal of
Counseling Psychology 60.1 (2013): 1.