Brooklyn Connections

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

Brooklyn Connections uses materials from the Brooklyn Collection to illustrate the experience of living in Brooklyn through primary sources and to “connect history to self and make meaning” (B. Murphy, personal commun.). By focusing on the historical experience gleaned from newspaper articles, maps, photographs, and other materials, Brooklyn Connections teaches crucial research skills and demonstrates the “validity of experiential knowledge” among students, as highlighted by Accardi in her discussion of feminist pedagogy (2013, p. 37–38). Our hip-hop lesson will emphasize not only the inclusiveness of feminist pedagogy, but also the three main goals of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995) by drawing on the

53). Everhart also noted that “using visual details developed inferences and interpretations that might describe more fully what was happening” within a source (p. 53). Keeping these models in mind, we created our lesson plan to help students in the Brooklyn Connections program understand that historical documents are open to interpretation and critique. We also selected sources that focused on visual learning by asking students to view photographs and maps and to interpret the content. At the same time, we provided guided notes for teachers to distill the general overarching ideas students can take away from the

Bullen defines hooks’ term “teaching to transgress” as a strategy that suggests revolution and speaks to one’s determination, strength, and commitment. It is a strategy that casts the “teacher” and the student in the role of revolutionaries—agents of change. Bullen goes on to state the “education as the practice of freedom” speaks to the need to free oneself from oppression. In order to do this, one should critically examine our world and our experiences on a local and global level. Today, it remains that most students are taught in classrooms where styles of teachings still reflect the white, male, heterosexual school of thought, which is viewed and accepted as universal. “Obedience and not a zealous will to learn” (hooks, p. 3) appears to be what is expected in classrooms where diversity is viewed as a threat and where students are being trained to enter the service sector of the economy. Both Bullen’s and hooks’ works are guiding forces in our lesson plan because we are trying to address racist, stereotypical, and oppressive views of the Marcy Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant. We want students to look at the language used in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle with a critical eye—and to extrapolate that ability to examine our current