Kyueun Kim

In 2019, I participated in a month-long Open Focused Inquiry Series “Communication as Praxis” organized by Teaching and Learning Center Fellows at Thea Graduate Center, CUNY. We investigated verbal and nonverbal communications in the classroom as a set of intentional practices. 

After weeks of reading, discussing, and thinking together, I presented an activity designed to activate linguistic diversity in the classrooms, inspired by Teaching to Transgress: Education as Practice of Freedom by bell hooks (photo below). I wrote a reflection post in Visible Pedagogy, a blog dedicated to advancing and expanding conversations about teaching and learning at CUNY.

The full blog post which includes the activity can be accessed here: https://vp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2019/09/24/language-and-the-politics-of-talking-and-listening/

“In the classroom setting, I encourage students to use their first language and translate it so they do not feel that seeking higher education will necessarily estrange them from that language and culture they know most intimately. […] These lessons seem particularly crucial in a multicultural society that remains white supremacist, that uses Standard English as a weapon to silence and censor.” 

bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 172