Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education

by Peter McLaren

EDUCATION

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, School

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Professor in the Division of Urban Schooling, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (United States). He is the author and editor of forty-five books and hundreds of scholarly articles and chapters. His writings have been translated into 20 languages.

He is known as one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy and for his scholarly writings on critical literacy, the sociology of education, cultural studies, critical ethnography, and Marxist theory. He has developed a reputation for his uncompromising political analysis influenced by a Marxist humanist philosophy and a unique literary style of expression. His scholarship and political activism have taken him throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Reviews

[sutibah · Rating 5 out of 5]

“(…) schools serve as more than simple sorting stations that unproblematically reproduce the labor stratification and occupational differentiation that exists in the wider society. Students are not merely passive victims. They actively contest the hegemony of the dominant culture through resistance. They act in opposition to the process of social reproduction but, as a result of these very acts of opposition, they sadly foreclose the few options available to them to break out of their lived class subordination” (214).

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Страхиња Стоиљковић]

Neka ostane za neki naredni period.

[J-Lynn Van Pelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a radical view of education written by a radical critical pedagogue. McLaren uses journal entries of his own teaching journey to demonstrate the state of education in America, especially the inequities of education for economically disadvantaged students. He deconstructs institutional oppression and unspoken power structures found in the public schools.

Paying close attention to social stratifications such as class and race, McLaren introduces the concepts of critical pedagogy from theory to curriculum.

[Fred R · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I'm still a little shocked at how politicized the education sector is.

Additionally, I feel like there's a real disconnect between the obvious lessons one would draw from the personal experiences as a teacher that open the book and the conclusions he draws near the end.

[Nico Meyering]

McLaren is a revolutionary educator. There's something here for both the casual reader and for the budding teacher/educational theorists. It's like Kaufman's "Up The Down Staircase", but more contemporary. You can't read it and not have sympathy for teachers.

[Cat Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heart you, Peter McLaren

[Aaron Fowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great channel through which critical pedagogy can travel to urban schools in North America.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read specifically the article Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts.