Henry Giroux begins this discussion by observing that he thinks there is a lot to be learned about what happens to higher education when authoritarians win elections and a liberal democracy morphs into something else. Giroux believes that under the regime of Donald Trump, higher education is under siege, and its stated purpose to produce the…

A strong conservative current underlies much of what is currently said about authority in schooling. Educational authority should be rooted in the ideal of democratic social transformation, a function it cannot have when conceived of more narrowly in terms of institutional heirarchy and stability. (CB)

Administrators and teachers should rethink their role as public intellectuals and reject the cult of knowledge, expertise, and disembodied rationality permeating curriculum theory discourse. Educators must redefine educational leadership through forms of social criticism, civic courage, and public engagement allowing them to oppose the forces…

Compares the ways in which traditional and critical educational theorists relate the issues of school knowledge and control to the notion of power. Analyzes some of the major contributions each of the various positions has made to understanding how power and knowledge function in school life. (HTH)

School reformers must reclaim schools in the interest of extending democracy, combating domestic tyranny, and preventing assaults on human dignity, rather than myopically pursuing competitive test scores. The role of the teacher must be socially redefined, and learning for empowerment advanced. Techniques for financing education must also be…

Illustrates how life in post-September 11 America is both a rupture from certain anti-government politics that dominated before that day and a continuation of the pre-September 11 promotion of global capitalism and the abandonment of efforts to create greater equality. The paper attempts to help educators contemplate the role of public schools in…

Discusses the sociopolitical function of the school, shows how that is accomplished in the classroom, and explains that present practice supports student alienation. Recommends an alternative set of values and social processes for use in the social studies promoting equality, community, and humanistic social interaction. (CK)

The authors argue that many of the recently recommended public-school reforms either sidestep or abandon the principles underlying education for a democratic citizenry developed by John Dewey and others. The authors outline a teacher education curriculum that links the critical study of power, language, culture, and history to the practice of a…

Suggests that the critical tradition in current pedagogical and curricular thought may be particularly well suited for rural schools. An interview with a leading authority on rural education in Poland examines the results of centralized technological and industrialized planning on rural Polish communities and schools. (SM)

Presents dominant approaches to English teaching as reinforcing social inequality by excluding works considered marginal with respect to mainstream society. Suggests teaching students to critically appropriate the expression of different cultural experiences, providing them with the skills they will need to define and shape, rather than simply…

Argues that understanding the crisis of youth must be central to any notion of literacy, pedagogy, and cultural politics. Offers suggestions for the political and pedagogical roles educators might play in addressing the crisis of youth as part of the broader crisis of public life. (NH)

Problems in high schools have less to do with the relationships of students with their teachers than with the inadequacy of faculty-administrator relationships. This paper focuses on this problem and on the structural basis out of which these relationships develop. (Author/RK)

Analyzes how traditional and liberal discourses treat the intersection of culture, power, and knowledge in fashioning a view of teaching and learning. Argues that both traditions fail as modes of critical pedagogy and that it is necessary to develop a critical discourse that embraces pedagogy as a form of cultural politics. (Author/GC)

Challenging prevalent views of teachers as technicians, bureaucratic agents, and deskilled intellectuals, the article recommends restructuring teachers' roles by considering them public intellectuals, exploring pedagogical and curricular transformations and changes in workplace conditions that might empower individual teachers and emancipate…