This paper traces the evolution of discourses around the role of critical social theory in the field of lifelong education that have played out in the pages of the "International Journal of Lifelong Education" and elsewhere in the field, beginning with early critical theoretical discourses, a consideration of the impact of some key…

This paper evaluates the contribution of "social realism" in resolving questions of knowledge and curriculum in the sociology of education. Social realists argue that, in the interests of educational equality, all pupils should have access to "powerful" knowledge produced by specialist intellectual communities. Social realism…

As critical perspectives in language studies have gained legitimacy and even mainstream status in applied linguistics, it is necessary to re-examine the meaning of criticality in language studies and to re-envision criticality for further development. The authors explore criticality from several theoretical perspectives as well as from the notion…

This chapter outlines the core tenets of critical social theory and describes inherent issues facing evaluators conducting critical theory evaluation. Using critical pedagogy as an example, the authors describe the issues facing evaluators by developing four of the subtheories that comprise a critical social theory: (a) a theory of false…

This article argues for the adoption of a new language in critical educational studies through the "narrative turn", a turn that politicizes knowledge by drawing attention to questions concerning the meaning, construction and authorship of narratives. In the authors' interpretation going back to the poetics of early narrative forms they…

Since the emergence of postmodern social theory, history has been haunted by predictions of its imminent end. Postmodernism has been accused of making historical research and writing untenable, encouraging the proliferation of revisionist histories, providing fertile ground for historical denial, and promoting the adoption of a mournful view of…

What happens to education when the potential it helps realizing in the individual works against the formal purposes of the curriculum? What happens when education becomes a vehicle for its own subversion? As a subject-forming state apparatus working on ideological speciesism, formal education is engaged in both human and animal stratification in…

This important, timely, and thought-provoking reader is a collection of original chapters by authors from five different countries, each of whom explores a facet of transformative leadership. Transformative leadership is fundamentally a critical approach to leadership that goes well beyond the tenets of most current leadership theories to focus on…

Praised for its clarity and accessibility, this fully updated edition of "Critical Social Theories" presents a comprehensive analysis of leading social and cultural theories today. Diverse perspectives are addressed from feminism and cultural studies to postmodernism and critical theory. Written accessibly for students and faculty, the second…

"Change Matters," written by leading scholars committed to social justice in English education, provides researchers, university instructors, and preservice and inservice teachers with a framework that pivots social justice toward policy. The chapters in this volume detail rationales about generating social justice theory in what Freire calls "the…

How might comparatists view and image the world as a visual dialogue? How have representations of visual culture in comparative education discourse changed since the 1960s? This paper identifies, types, and maps the scopic regimes of modernity (that is, the technical and critical rationalist, and the hermeneutical constructivist) and postmodernity…

Although William P. Foster assumed the critical theorist's stance of revealing the presumptions and assumptions of educational leadership, he, among others, also provided the underpinnings for the field's current attention to issues of social justice. This article furthers the call, which Foster articulated in his final article, to assert…

This book reviews recent developments in the study and theory of leadership and explores new applications. It examines the questions that structuration theory raises for leadership, explores the theory of charisma and critical theory as posing new challenges to the understanding of leadership, and describes the uses of postmodernist theory for a…

More than any other recent social theorist, constructing a disquisition on Butler's ideas draws the writer into speculating on the formation of their own intellectual grammar, perhaps to confront the disconcerting truth of how often their own cherished analytical rationality is broken up by glimpses into the imagination of more provocative…

This book presents six critical commentaries on the state of the discipline and practice of adult education. "The Critical Turn in Adult Education Theory" (Michael R. Welton) takes the position that the critical theoretical tradition from Marx to Habermas can provide a foundation for an emancipatory educational practice.…