bell hooks’s teaching philosophy places love at the center of pedagogy: not sentimentality, but an ethic of care, respect, and accountability. In Teaching to Transgress (1994), she names this engaged pedagogy, where teacher and students co-create knowledge and risk vulnerability in pursuit of freedom. To say change comes when learning touches the heart is to insist that intellect alone cannot liberate. When a teacher learns a student’s story and affirms their dignity, resistance softens, curiosity returns, and rigor becomes invitational rather than punitive. This stance reframes classrooms as communities of practice rather than compliance, and it sets the stage for enduring transformation. [...]
