This essay expands on the concept of educational life and builds on an autonomist Marxist framework that better allows us to understand neoliberalism's parasitic operations. Following this, the last section will confront the limits of the progressive educational imaginary and offer up for consideration postschool imaginaries. Drawing on Kathi…

This article focuses on a particular group in capitalist society that is disabled, demeaned and denied by capitalism itself, through processes of economic exploitation, systematic and systemic class exclusion, and discrimination/ prejudice- that is- the working class. In doing so I recognise that the working class (defined as all those who sell…

Social reproduction theory names at least two distinct traditions, one of which has a long history in educational research. Social reproduction theory in "education" emerged out of a concern with education's relationship to capitalist inequalities. By contrast, social reproduction "feminism" developed out of feminist…

On October 16, 2017, over 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors in 24 independent postsecondary colleges in Ontario, Canada went on strike for the fourth time since they organized in 1971 as members of the Civil Service Association of Ontario and won their first collective agreement the next year. Begun as an apolitical, self-consciously…

Presenting the current mode of production as a triumvirate of capital, learning, and debt, I argue that a certain education and rhythm reinforce exploitation and domination. I propose queer communist study to break out of this regime. I first turn to Lee Edelman's polemic against reproductive futurism, which commits us to the logic of identity,…

No significant scholarship in educational studies has focused on Lefebvre's engagement with socialist state theory and his position against Stalin. As a result, when Lefebvre's thoughts on the state and on actually existing socialism are mentioned, they are engaged completely uncritically. This essay addresses this crucial gap. Toward these ends,…

While the loss of space for critical engagement has been a primary focus for critics of the neo-liberal transformation of higher education, the recasting of the relationship between education and economy has not meant the death of critical thinking. Instead, I argue that critical thinking has emerged as a binding point in higher education…

In this interview, Curry Malott and Derek R. Ford discuss their new book, "Marx, Capital, and Education: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Becoming." The interview begins with a general inquiry into their intellectual backgrounds as scholar-activists and, importantly, comrades. The authors then discuss the process of collaborating together…

Best known for arguing that individual development is part of social and historical development Vygotsky's entry into education may be captured by his concept of the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). ZPD has not yet been synthesized with a critical study of whiteness. When ZPD is used to explain racial disparities in the service of…

To date research and scholarship on privatisation in education lacks critical depth and intensity. Many accounts have been largely descriptive, focusing on how privatisation takes places, or on the threat of privatisation, or its insertion within education systems. Furthermore, work on educational commodification has been substantially dissociated…

Part one: This article is the first part of a project concerned with developing a Marxist critical pedagogy that moves beyond a critique of capital and toward a communist future. The article begins with a brief survey of and intervention in the contemporary historical and political moment as it pertains to the potentiality of a communist pedagogy,…

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,…

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…

Having challenged student resistance scholarship for glorifying forms of resistance that tend to be self-destructive to students, the field has shifted to supporting and advancing more transformational forms of resistance, such as organizing campaigns for social justice issues. While this is a welcome advance, the conception of transformative…

This article examines the current crisis of neoliberal capitalism and globalized imperialism from the perspective of a Marxist-humanist approach to pedagogy known as "revolutionary critical pedagogy". It is written as an epistle to the transnational capitalist class, demanding that those who willingly serve its interests reconsider their…