Althusser and Education: Reassessing Critical Education

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Louis Althusser's thinking laid the groundwork for critical educational theory, yet it is often misunderstood in critical pedagogy, sociology of education, and related fields. In this open access book, David I. Backer reexamines Althussers educational theory, specifically the claim that education is the most powerful ideological state apparatus in modern capitalist societies. He then presents this theorys flawed reception in critical educational research and draws out a lost tradition of educational thinking it inspired with important applications to race, gender, ideology, and the concept of social structure in education. Correcting the record about Althussers thinking in the traditional narrative of critical educational research becomes an opportunity to revisit fundamental questions for thinking about school in its social context. For students and researchers of education, critical theory, sociology of education, and critical pedagogy, this book will be a resource for rethinking the social foundations of education, both as a field and as a set of theoretical frameworks for educational research. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Reviews

In this significant contribution to critical educational studies, Backer rethinks common interpretations of Althusser as unable to recognize human agency and re-establishes Althusser's ideas in conversations about social and cultural reproduction. This is the most comprehensive and nuanced reading of Althusser's thinking about education available in the English language. * Isaac Gottesman, Lenore Tingle Howard '42 Associate Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Education, Connecticut College, USA *
Backer delivers a detailed critique of the ideologies pervading critical education studies today, and offers a much-needed route towards an Althusserian pedagogy. Backer shows us that pedagogy, much like philosophy, is a battleground. His original reading of Althusser introduces a decisive theoretical weapon onto this terrain. * Samuel J.R. Mercer, Lecturer in Social Policy, School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK *

Author Bio

David I. Backer is Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies at West Chester University, USA. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America.