Sista Talk: The Personal and the Pedagogical

By Rochelle Brock

Sista Talk: The Personal and the Pedagogical is an inquiry into the questions of how Black women define their existence in a society which devalues, dehumanizes, and silences their beliefs. Placing herself inside of the research, Rochelle Brock invites the reader on a journey of self-exploration, as she and seven of her Black female students investigate their collective journey toward self-awareness in the attempt to liberate their minds and souls from ideological domination. Throughout, Sista Talk attempts to understand the ways in which this self-exploration informs her pedagogy. Combining Black feminist and Afrocentric Theory with critical pedagogy, this book frames the parameters for an Afrowomanist pedagogy of wholeness for teaching Black students.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820449539
• ISBN13: 9780820449531
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publi
• Length: 141 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Sista Talk Review

Sista Talk Review Published in 2005, by Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., SISTA TALK: THE PERSONAL AND THE PEDAGOGICAL shares the life journey of ROCHELLE BROCK as a woman, as a person of color, as a PhD Candidate in Curriculum and Teaching at Pennsylvania State University, as a researcher, and as a university educator. As a researcher and university educator, since 2007, ROCHELLE BROCK has served Indiana University Northwest as Executive Director of the Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) and Assistant Professor in the School of Education where she teaches courses on Urban Field Experience, Methods of Teaching in Urban Schools, and Cultural/Community Forces and Schools. Her current research interests include URBAN EDUCATION, MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION, and TEACHER IDENTITY. Her current theoretical interests reflect AFROWOMANIST PEDAGOGY, RACE and GENDER STUDIES, and BLACK WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY as a vehicle for academic transformation. In SISTA TALK, BROCK writes from her heart about the joys and sorrows of teaching along with the pain, healing, and oppression she has faced as a BLACK WOMAN on her life's journey to become the SCHOLAR-ACTIVIST-EDUCATOR glimpsed in the book. This self-reflection is informed by the experiences she encountered as a Doctoral Student, PhD Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at Pennsylvania State University. And it is reflected in the extensive CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHIC NARRATIVES of the book in which she draws from the subject matter provided to her by her Black female graduate students on resilience and academic achievement. In addition to serving as the content of SISTA TALK, these narratives also served as the methodology of BROCK'S Ph.D. thesis entitled THEORIZING AWAY THE PAIN: HYPHENATING THE SPACE BETWEEN THE PERSONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL. Hence, the brilliance and excitement of SISTA TALK is that in seven chapters, it combines BLACK FEMINIST and AFROCENTRIC THEORY with CRITICAL PEDAGOGY to frame what ROCHELLE BROCK names an Afrowomanist PEDAGOGY OF WHOLENESS for teaching (p. 83). By interweaving the voice of her internal other, OSHUN, an African Goddess with critical ethnographic narrative, poetry, reflections, interviews, storytelling, and social analysis, PEDAGOGY OF WHOLENESS offers a grounded theory of experience that concretizes a space to ask ontological questions of existence and being that make us consider who we categorize as "marginalized" and for what reason we alienate some but not others to the margins of society. Even more, the PEDAGOGY OF WHOLENESS in practice (p. 96) is reflected in several problem-posing queries that BROCK raises throughout the book: How do I understand my realities as an objectified other? Where do I fight the battle for my selfhood? Where is my fight/struggle as a human being, teacher, scholar, activist, a mentor? What can I learn from the historical exploitation of my sisters and how does this knowledge influence/shape my pedagogy? These are all ontological questi

Engaging and Inspriring

Sista Talk challenges traditional notions of research, and validates ways of knowing and being for Black women. Brock's bravery in tackling this project through creative use of prose, narratives, and personal insights is to be commended. A must read for those in academia, and highly recommended for everyone else, Sista Talk is an excellent example of a qualitative research project that recognizes and integrates her role as the researcher throughout the work. As much as her book provides insights to the struggles of Black women navigating institutions of domination, it is equally a reflection of her struggles and how she began to create and recognize an alternative way of being. This book is a must read for students as an illustration of a non-traditional form of academic research. I highly recommend this book for anyone seeking to understand new ways of thinking and existing in the world.

Between the grips of theory and self

Brock's Sista Talk is one of those books you can't (shouldn't) put down. An odd thing to say for a book intended mostly for academic audiences. The reality is anybody could read this and be equally captured by the rawness, candor, and theoretical/ practical twists provided throughout the book. Brock has provided not only insight into the nuances of black feminist thought and lived experience, but has provided a map of sorts to the research she conducted with fellow Black women reflecting and theorizing their state of being, institutional and societal racism, and collusions with, as well as internalizations of power. It is a gripping tale of a scholar disclosing the way that theory has taken hold, arrested her thoughts, and provided a way out. I find this work critical for students in particular, who hardly get the privilege to see their struggles resembled in those they read. Brock's work is unique, but reminds me of the same presence of Anzaldua's work, where struggle, pain, and deep insight are inextricable from one another. She courageously plays with short stories, prose, narratives, and multiple voices to underscore the competing perspectives we face daily and never leaves an experience or thought off the pedagogical hook. Brock teases out what we can learn, what she has learned, and what we can do with the benefit of her reflections and ours. Its structure is engaging, almost lyrical in the way it invites you to read differently and ask provocative questions about knowledge production and identity. A definite read!