Critical Education Theory is a subset of Critical Theory which deals specifically with the field of education. It looks at the role that education reciprocally plays in the shaping of public life. In particular, it interrogates how public life is shaped through the exercise of power used instrumentally through the medium of education. It sees education as being shaped by the structures and processes of power that exist in the wider society, but it also sees education as a powerful force for ahaping the minds, perceptions, beliefs and behaviours of the general public. It asks fundamental questions such as:

As a part of Critical Theory it adopts a revisionist Marxist approach to this investigation - looking specifically at how Capitalism is implicated in the process.

The field of Critical Education Theory has been in existence almost as long as there has been formal compulsory schooling - that is, for slightly more than a hundred years. Early studies involved studies in the relationship between schooling and democracy. John Dewey 's work in the early 20th Century was important here. Similarly, the works and writings of people like Bertrand Russell, Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire and many others have contributed greatly to our understannding of the ways in which education serves the interests of society's dominant culture.

Critical Education theory is shaped by and resists the social and economic pressures of Late Capitalism and "free market" economies. Among the most prominent theorists concerned with these issues are Stanley Aronowitz, Michael Apple, Douglas Kellner, Henry Giroux, and Michael Peters. Critical to an understanding of how the relatioinshioop between power and knowledge is played out directly in the classroom is the realisation of how power is involved:

• In the shaping and development of the educational curriculum (Curriculum Studies)
  
• In the shaping and development of the pedagogy by which the curriculum is delivered. (Critical Pedagogy).

Michael Apple is perhaps the world's foremost theorist on curriculum and his theories are explored in depth in this website. While there is an ongoing struggle to detemine what gets included in the curriculum (see for instance the issue of Creationism) the area of critical pedagogy has also been a site of considerable research and ideological struggle.

Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. Critical pedagogue Ira Shor defines critical pedagogy as

Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse. (Empowering Education, 129).

Besides Shor, other significant theorists in this area are Peter Mclaren, Antonia Darder, Joan Wink, Colin Lankshear , and a host of other critical padagogues. Many of them have links from this website.

 

For and Overview of Critical Education Theory click here

To view and/or download Critical Education Theory Case Studies click here

Also included here are numerous downloadable examples of Critical Education Practice