Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Praise for Critical Curriculum Studies
"If Wayne Au wanted to 'revitalize' curriculum studies--it worked Articulating the complex simply, this unique and insightful contribution successfully explains the electric relationship between what we learn and what we do. This is a must read for those interested in knowledge and possibility." --William H. Watkins, Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago
"This is an essential book for anyone interested in the politics of knowledge and education that aims to be transformative rather than reproductive of current social conditions. Summing Up: Essential." --E. W. Ross, University of British Columbia, in CHOICE
In A Marxist Education: Learning to Change the World, professor and education activist Wayne Au traces both his own development as a Marxist educator, as well as the development of Marxist educational theory. Arguing that dialectical materialism is at the heart of Marxist theory, Au uses dialectics to not only analyze the relationship between capitalism and schools, but also to understand teaching, learning, and curriculum. In the process, A Marxist Education challenges the idea that Marxism is Eurocentric, reclaims noted educators such as Lev Vygotsky and Paulo Freire as being within the Marxist tradition, and integrates racial and feminist traditions into analyses of education, consciousness, and power.
Wayne Au is a former public high school social studies and language arts teacher and Assistant Professor in the Education Program at the University of Washington. He is editor at Rethinking Schools, as well as author and editor of many books, including Critical Curriculum Studies and Unequal by Design.
Synopsis
A critical analysis of the state of public education under capitalism and the prospects for radical pedagogy and reform.