Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom

In Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom, celebrated cultural critic and educator bell hooks offers a powerful guide to cultivating one of the most essential skills for engaged citizenship and meaningful learning: the ability to think critically. Building on her groundbreaking work in feminist pedagogy and radical education, hooks presents a series of short, accessible essays that illuminate the transformative power of critical thinking in classrooms, communities, and everyday life.

With characteristic clarity and warmth, hooks shows that critical thinking is not simply an academic exercise, but a vital practice of freedom—one that encourages self-reflection, deep questioning, and the courage to challenge assumptions. She explores how teachers can nurture curiosity and open dialogue, helping students move beyond passive consumption of information toward active, creative, and responsible participation in the world. At the same time, she underscores the joy and hope that can emerge when education is rooted in honesty, inclusivity, and care.

Drawing on her decades of teaching experience, hooks offers practical wisdom for educators across disciplines, as well as for readers seeking to enrich their own intellectual lives. Her insights speak to pressing issues of race, gender, class, and power, while also affirming the potential of education to spark transformation.

Teaching Critical Thinking is both a call to action and a source of inspiration for teachers, students, parents, and lifelong learners. By insisting that critical thinking is a practice that belongs to everyone—not just academics—hooks makes a compelling case for its role in building more just, creative, and hopeful communities. Accessible, engaging, and deeply practical, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone committed to education as a liberatory act.