Steal This University explores the paradox of academic labor. Universities do not exist to generate a profit from capital investment, yet contemporary universities are increasingly using corporations as their model for internal organization. While the media, politicians, business leaders and the general public all seem to share a remarkable consensus that higher education is indispensable to the future of nations and individuals alike, within academia bitter conflicts brew over the shape of tomorrow's universities. Contributors to the volume range from the star academic to the...

Now that national borders are increasingly being challenged by economic and political globalization, how should we view the patriotic messages sent to our children in public schools?

Offering a critical ethnography of education at the U.S.-Mexico border, Pledging Allegiance explores how public schools teach cultural and national values explicitly and implicitly. Susan J. Rippberger and Kathleen A. Staudt illuminate the complex overlays of culture and learning through the eyes of students, teachers, and administrators in U.S. and Mexican schools. This book examines nationalism and civic ritual, bilingualism, technology, and classroom organization to discover how educators along the border impart senses of national and cultural identity to their students.