Examines transitions from critical to postcritical and postmodern to premodern that underlie Philip Wexler's writing on social and educational theory, discussing critical social psychology and examining social and spiritual transformation in the postmodern world. For Wexler's envisioned transformation to occur, it must be accompanied by ongoing…

This paper explores the impact of John Dewey on the field of educational psychology. Dewey raised issues and ideas, such as the role of context and the reapproximation of knowledge, that would come to haunt education and psychology for the next century. And yet soon after the turn of the twentieth century, Dewey abandoned psychology and redefined…

The paper examines critical theory and curriculum theory, focusing on the work of John Dewey. It uses the reconceptualist view to help frame the critical theory perspective in curriculum studies. It notes the importance of viewing all facets of Dewey's work rather than extracting unpalatable elements. (SM)

Addresses the assumption that ritual performances are not as important in modern, secular, bureaucratic schools as they were in communal, sacred, tribal societies, reviving a concept forged in structuralism and redefining it as a performative text, thus taking advantage of certain poststructural insights while maintaining much of the power of its…

This essay examines how themes emerging in the writing of New Left thinkers resemble those espoused by traditional American cultural conservatives. The views of Donald Davidson, a representative of the Southern Agrarian movement, concerning industrialization in the United States and the role of progressive education in socialization are discussed.…

Daniel Bell's theories about post industrial society are critiqued, and their relevance for educational theorizing is questioned. Educational theorists should not uncritically accept ideas arising in other areas of the social sciences, but should establish their own structure based on philosophy, science, and humanism. (PP)

Both formal and nonformal schooling have failed to bring about economic change in developing countries. Assumptions guiding both types of education are shaped by capitalist or socialist myths that are deeply rooted in Western culture. Underdeveloped countries must invent their own myths to effect change through education. (PP)

An alternative is presented to counter current radical arguments that the schools cannot bring about social change because they are instruments of capitalism. The works of Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, and Louis Althusser are discussed. Henry Giroux's "Ideology, Culture and the Process of Schooling" provides an alternative to cynicism.…

This essay discusses how Foucault's study of power relates to more general reexamination of the foundations of critical traditions, especially decentering of the subject as part of a broader consideration of social epistemology. The paper explores two concepts of power (sovereignty/repression and deployment/production of power) and examines the…

The social and educational theories of Basil Bernstein are examined. (JD)