⭐️ Drawing from her own experiences in the classroom, bell shows a vulnerability that is so important to the conversation around critical and transformative pedagogy. Some of her strongest prose comes out in her discussions around the ‘disconnect’ teachers are meant to exhibit between themselves and their students or themselves and their own bodies and lives. She argues that teachers must be prepared to show the same vulnerability they expect from their students, and she practices this by letting us share in the love, joy, pain and grief that she has experienced in and out of the classroom.

⭐️ With all the discussion currently around curriculum, bell offers an important take on pedagogy (reminding me of something Gloria Ladson-Billings said: no matter how great your curriculum is, it cannot teach itself). bell shares insight into creating democratic classrooms that genuinely value individual voice, critique and experience, in order to create a community of learning. This is the process through which students liberate themselves and others - learning, listening, un-learning, questioning, being open, accepting discomfort, and loving one another.

⭐️ bell draws from her experience in higher education but these are just as applicable to primary and secondary school settings.

⭐️ As someone born in the 90s and considers themselves an intersectional feminist, it was also fascinating to read about the historical (and continued) struggle for Black feminist voice and legitimacy within academic circles.