Education and Capitalism
this book had be getting pumped up about emancipatory education on the morning commute. I work in education and it is a constant barrage of neoliberal ideology, tearing down any higher concept of education as a social right and a social good into some scheming "business skill", and test score. This book is a collective middle finger to all of that bad news. It is a feel-good book.
I often read about "Praxis" when reading in Marxism, and it can sometimes make very little practical sense. This book weds the concept of Praxis in giving a Marxist interpretation of education while at the same time deepening the understanding of what Praxis means.Get it? How meta is that? For example, in several chapters it shows how combining education in a traditional sense with political and emancipatory education helps turn learning into an engaging, cooperative enterprise. I love this quote:
"genuine learning triumphs in revolutionary situations that provide people with real opportunities for collective and cooperative inquiry and research; that literacy is always political; and that radical pedagogy is most successful when it actively engages people in the transformation of their own worlds- not simply in the World of ideas, but by transforming the material conditions in which reading, writing, and learning take place." THAT is praxis.
The introductory chapter on Marxism in education is a tremendous primer in reorienting your views on education away from the neo-liberal doldrums which can creep into your thinking from the routine imposition of limit-situations. Which reminds me, I have heard of Friere and the pedagogy of the oppressed before, but the chapter in this book is a fantastic introduction and explanation of his thought. I mean he was writing in the heyday of foofy Marxist metaphysical writing. The author gives a wonderful explanation of limit-situations, untested feasabilities and limit-acts. I see these three concepts play out all of the time in my daily life, in class struggle, and in the classroom.
The book also dives into the history of literacy campaigns after socialist revolutions (Cuba and USSR in particular), and gives updates on why Obama's education policy is not much more than W's third-term. This ability to link the historical, the theoretical, and the topical make this book a great addition for anyone pissed off by the slide in education Globally, and for any Marxist a little fuzzy on the practical applications of Praxis.
I often read about "Praxis" when reading in Marxism, and it can sometimes make very little practical sense. This book weds the concept of Praxis in giving a Marxist interpretation of education while at the same time deepening the understanding of what Praxis means.Get it? How meta is that? For example, in several chapters it shows how combining education in a traditional sense with political and emancipatory education helps turn learning into an engaging, cooperative enterprise. I love this quote:
"genuine learning triumphs in revolutionary situations that provide people with real opportunities for collective and cooperative inquiry and research; that literacy is always political; and that radical pedagogy is most successful when it actively engages people in the transformation of their own worlds- not simply in the World of ideas, but by transforming the material conditions in which reading, writing, and learning take place." THAT is praxis.
The introductory chapter on Marxism in education is a tremendous primer in reorienting your views on education away from the neo-liberal doldrums which can creep into your thinking from the routine imposition of limit-situations. Which reminds me, I have heard of Friere and the pedagogy of the oppressed before, but the chapter in this book is a fantastic introduction and explanation of his thought. I mean he was writing in the heyday of foofy Marxist metaphysical writing. The author gives a wonderful explanation of limit-situations, untested feasabilities and limit-acts. I see these three concepts play out all of the time in my daily life, in class struggle, and in the classroom.
The book also dives into the history of literacy campaigns after socialist revolutions (Cuba and USSR in particular), and gives updates on why Obama's education policy is not much more than W's third-term. This ability to link the historical, the theoretical, and the topical make this book a great addition for anyone pissed off by the slide in education Globally, and for any Marxist a little fuzzy on the practical applications of Praxis.
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