Law is an important part of Althusser's thought. He profoundly criticized the mechanism of capitalist law from the perspective of 'reproduction.' First, the law cannot be separated from the relations of production. In order to maintain capitalist relations of production, the law covers up the exploitation in the process of capitalist production.…

This paper explores the facilitation of the emancipatory in an International Baccalaureate ("IB") context of privilege. It aligns with the idea that capitalism, even in welfare state democracies or 'do good' corporations, maintains the interests of the owners of capital. It is by nature unjust and exploitative and must conceal this…

In the past ten years radical educators have developed several theories around the notions of reproduction and resistance. In this article, Henry Giroux critically analyzes the major positions of these theories, finding them inadequate as a foundation for a critical science of schooling. He concludes by outlining the directions for a new theory of…

This article interrogates a key feature of anarchist education; focusing on a problem with implications not only for anarchist conceptions of education, but for anarchist philosophy and practice more broadly. The problem is this: if anarchism consists in the principled opposition to all forms of coercive authority, then how is this to be…

The critical race theory concept of 'White supremacy' continues to be a major locus of disagreement between Critical Race Theorists and Marxists regarding both how it operates as a general descriptor of racial power dynamics in the Western world and for its explanatory power in accounting for the multiple forms in which racism manifests.…

The primary purpose of this article is to present the critique of critical pedagogy in analogy to Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels's critique of critical critique and through the materialist theory of education developed by the Polish philosopher of education and Marxist Bogdan Suchodolski, whose work, Fundamental Ideas of a Materialist Theory of…

The bulk of research on academic rankings is policy-oriented, preoccupied with 'best practices', and seems incapable of transcending the normative discourse of 'governance'. To understand, engage, and properly critique the operation of power in academic rankings, the rankings discourse needs to escape the gravity of 'police science' and embrace a…

In the context of the ongoing debate between Critical Race Theorists and (neo-) Marxists over the Critical Race Theory concept of 'White supremacy', this paper extends the analysis to Black Radicalism in an attempt to further develop the neo-Marxist critique of 'White supremacy' deployed as a general descriptor of racism in Western societies.…

According to Karl Popper's critical rationalism, criticism is the only way we have of systematically detecting and learning from our mistakes so as to get nearer to the truth. Meanwhile, it is arguable that the emphasis of Confucianism on creating a hierarchical and harmonious society can easily lead to submission rather than opposition, producing…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to engage some of the central themes of Gayatri Spivak's seminal essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak? (CSS)" In particular, her criticisms of post-structuralism's treatment of the "subject" as well as its privileging of "discourse" and micrological analyses of power vis-à-vis her…

This paper offers a critical analysis of the imposition of Fundamental British Values (FBVs) in schools and nurseries as part of Prevent, the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, and compares the rationale of this policy with the motivation for Theatre in Education (TIE). This paper argues that the 'values' promoted through education under Prevent…

This article explores how school-aged Chinese youth make meaning of the civic roles of citizens in the context of a society with a powerful one-party government. We examined how 16 focus groups (N = 64) of adolescents from urban and rural schools in Shanghai and Nantong talked about the causes and solutions of social problems facing China. Our…

This work utilizes Foucault's articulations on the power strategies of our contemporary society. To him the subject's constitution is never a purely passive effect of power on the subject but requires the subject's own activity. This necessitates the existence of a dynamic, mutually affecting relationship, implying that one can be both dominated…

Films of the "perestroika" period (1986-1991) related to school/university theme showed that: - the educational / upbringing process has lost the previous strict storylines and in many respects has lost its communist landmarks;--both school and university have acute problem areas (crisis, disappointment and fatigue, professional…

In the shadow of triumphalist and hubristic capitalism, many adherents to critical pedagogy promote "democracy" as a kind of anti-capitalist challenge to inequality, oppression and exploitation. However, American culture has gone global, immersing the world in the received wisdom of a variety of liberalisms or in the reaction formations of…