This book presents essays written by internationally acclaimed scholars on the leading figures and major social projects and movements within the tradition of critical theory. Critical Theory and the Human Condition is organized in two parts: -Labors of the Dialectic- and -Projects and Movements-. -Labors of the Dialectic- addresses key themes associated with the work of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Eric Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Jurgen Habermas and Maxine Greene. Their work is situated in relation to...

This book speaks to the heart of an urgent task facing teacher preparation programs on campuses at the beginning of the twenty-first century: How can college instructors work most effectively with a new generation of nontraditional students that includes growing numbers of immigrants, single parents, and returning homemakers struggling to find their way in large and unfamiliar institutions? Susan Bernheimer went straight to the source for answers, interviewing impoverished students aspiring to become teachers of young children. Revealing, poignant, and replete with practical insights about...

Poverty is a fundamental and damaging feature of American culture that is ingrained in the structures, practices, and values of our institutions. An adequate understanding of the roles and functions of poverty requires the contributions of both the liberal arts and the social sciences and cannot be shunted off to social work.
Upon Whom We Depend challenges readers to examine their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes, and to recognize how institutions can become instruments for overcoming the social arrangement by which poverty is perpetuated.

Since its inception, action research has been the subject of confusion and controversy. Can something be research if it doesn't prove anything? Can something be action research if it's a project run by an expert who does not consider participants co-researchers? Questions multiply when the general term is limited to critical action research. What makes critical action research different from action research generally?
Can the action research project of a classroom teacher intended to raise standardized test scores properly be considered critical? Is there a role for advocacy in any...

"A School for Healing: Alternative Strategies for Teaching At-Risk Students" describes an alternative school that dealt with students who were expelled or suspended from public school and who perceived themselves as victims of injustice. It was assumed that they misinterpreted the facts of various situations or chose inappropriate strategies to correct real injustices. The task of the school was to help the students learn multiple perspectives for interpreting the actions of others and to teach them more appropriate ways of resolving injustices. Four students in the school relate their...

This book collects the most important essays of the late James B. Macdonald, educational theorist and cultural critic. Given the rise of importance of educational thinkers within the current move toward interdisciplinary theory dialogue. Macdonald's work stands as an important link between earlier technical discussions associated with curriculum development and contemporary moves toward viewing the central role of educational institutions and discourses in social and cultural life. Macdonald's essays - spanning from the early '60s to the early '80s - argue for the necessity of curriculum...

The Ecological Heart of Teaching is a collection of writings by teachers about their life in classrooms. Reflecting over three years of collective work, it illustrates how teachers, parents, and students can avoid some of the distractions and panic endemic to many schools, allowing them to focus thoughtfully on rigorous, beautiful work. It draws on ecological thinking, Buddhism, and hermeneutics to provide deeper, richer, and more abundant sources for teaching, thinking, and practice, and shows how these three lineages provide keys to decode the current malaise that surrounds...

The Ecological Heart of Teaching is a collection of writings by teachers about their life in classrooms. Reflecting over three years of collective work, it illustrates how teachers, parents, and students can avoid some of the distractions and panic endemic to many schools, allowing them to focus thoughtfully on rigorous, beautiful work. It draws on ecological thinking, Buddhism, and hermeneutics to provide deeper, richer, and more abundant sources for teaching, thinking, and practice, and shows how these three lineages provide keys to decode the current malaise that surrounds...

Breakbeat Pedagogy provides a groundbreaking framework for the inclusion of hip-hop culture in schools. Looking beyond the previous model of hip-hop-based education, Brian Mooney argues for school-wide hip-hop events, such as poetry slams, as the ideal site for students to engage in the elements of hip-hop culture. Working from the perspective of a classroom teacher, the author reflects on the story of Word Up , a hip-hop and spoken word poetry event that began with students in a New Jersey high school. He makes the case for a pedagogy with the potential to transform urban schools...