In this paper, Matthew Cowley advances a theoretical approach toward higher education drawn from critical race theory (CRT) and Black Marxism. After an overview of CRT and Black Marxism, Cowley builds a working understanding of two recent (re)conceptualizations of race and class analysis that draw from both: (1) "economies of racism" and…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) take university lectures and other educational materials and make them available for free as online "courses." Liberal and neoliberal MOOC supporters laud these courses for opening up education to the world while incorporating market dynamics to improve quality and drive down costs. Skeptics claim…

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 article Paul Warmington examines the dystopian analyses pervading recent work by David Blacker, John Marsh, and Pauline Lipman. Their unsettling depictions of education under late capitalism bear witness to irreversible economic and environmental malaise, the colonization of education by neoliberalism, and the unsustainability of faith in…

In this article Clayton Pierce reviews three books representative of the recent neo-Marxist literature on education: David Blacker's "The Falling Rate of Learning and the Neoliberal Endgame," John Marsh's Class Dismissed: "Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way out of Inequality," and Pauline Lipman's "The New Political…

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…

The author argues for a restrictive conception of ideology which is rationally tenable within a broader framework of Marxist educational studies. (MT)

The death knell has not been rung, nor have the conceptual boundaries of Marxism been delineated. Giroux has overlooked many of the more sophisticated strands of Marxism. (MT)

The author discusses how the Marxist tradition bridges the fact-value dichotomy in curriculum studies and how the bridging affects explanatory and prescriptive analysis. (MT)

This article analyzes Dale's attempt to reconstruct a classical version of Marxist ideology and finds its onesided. Dale replies in an immediately following article. (MT)

This article examines major categories of classical and critical Marxism and reviews issues emerging about their usefulness for radical social theory. These issues are analyzed with regard to how they have influenced the course of radical education theory. Finally, a theoretical discourse for developing an alternative radical theory of education…

This article attempts to demonstrate that although there are differences between the various works of the young and mature Karl Marx, a unifying factor can be found. (DF)

This article discusses the value of applying Marxist analysis to classroom practice, the philosophy of education, and progressive education. It criticizes Arnstine's position, which sees Marxist analysis as endangering devotion to personal autonomy. (IAH)

This essay begins with Karl Marx's notion of alienation, and then explores a form of alienation specific to education. It examines Mikhail Bakhtin's treatment of alienation in connection with his participative thinking theory and suggests strategies for overcoming educational alienation that are based on Bakhtin's notion of the eventness of Being.…

This article critiques "Schooling and Work in the Democratic State" by Martin Carnoy and Henry M. Levin. The book examined the public school as more than an institution that reproduces unequal class relations of capitalist society, but also as a product of conflict between the dominant and the dominated in the paid workplace. (MT)