Recovery as resistance: bell hooks, engaged pedagogy, and Buddhist thought

How do we style ourselves and others as scholars in the field of critical education? What parts of ourselves and others do we regard as salient (or not) in our accounts? And what are the forces that underlie such decisions? In this article, I submit that secularisation is a persistent epistemic and ontological condition that shapes the study of key figures in critical education. Through a sketch of how eminent radical educator bell hooks is commonly represented in this field - and recovering the threads of Buddhist thought from her own corpus as a counterpoint - I consider how the secularising impulse may obscure some of her unique educational insights and produce racialising effects, specifically the whitewashing of her intellectual provenance.

Automated summary

This article discusses how we portray ourselves and others as scholars in the field of critical education and what factors influence these portrayals. The author argues that secularization is a lasting epistemic and ontological condition that shapes the study of key figures in critical education. Through examining the commonly held image of bell hooks, a prominent radical educator, in this field and exploring her Buddhist influences as a counterpoint, the author explores how the secularizing impulse may obscure her unique educational insights and lead to whitewashing of her intellectual origins.