Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Take This Class If You Like To Be Brainwashed”: Walking The Knife’S Edge Between Education And Indoctrination, Chris Bobel

Chris Bobel

This article presents a case study or, perhaps more accurately, a pedagogical memoir that interrogates life inside my classroom as yet another site of transformation, a place where inner works become public acts. This story illustrates Anzaldúa's seven stages of conocimiento collapsed into four moments. Through an examination of "data" derived from my students' (anonymous) reflections on interacting with course material during the 15 -week term of my introductory Women's Studies class, I demonstrate the process of conocimiento, the complex series of awakenings, reckonings and integrations that build the foundation of social justice. I end by noting that what Anzaldúa …