Among the most important questions critical educators can ask today are the following: Can schools play a role in making a more just society possible? If not, why not? If so, what can they do? These questions provide the basis for this article by Michael Apple, as well as for the books under discussion here. The books by David Blacker, John Marsh,…

In this essay, Scott Ellison examines a line of critical thought in educational theory that has unapologetically sought transcendence in the face contemporary social and political conditions. Under the banner of critical pedagogy, Peter McLaren sees this current period of globalization as representing a worldwide historical crisis requiring a…

Some important theoretical work done in the field of education/schooling has come close to losing touch with the hard facts of lived experience. Educational theorists must resist making untenable motivational claims for the power of teachers and students which ignore the massively greater power of capital and its allies. (IAH)