Althusser and Education : : Reassessing Critical Education / / David I. Backer.

• Superior document: Radical Politics and Education
• VerfasserIn: Backer, David I.,
• Place / Publishing House: London : : Bloomsbury Academic,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Radical Politics and Education.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (228 pages).

Louis Althusser's thinking laid the groundwork for critical educational theory, yet it is often misunderstood in critical pedagogy, sociology of education, and related fields. In this open access book, David I. Backer reexamines Althusser's educational theory, specifically the claim that education is the most powerful ideological state apparatus in modern capitalist societies. He then presents this theory's flawed reception in critical educational research and draws out a lost tradition of educational thinking it inspired with important applications to race, gender, ideology, and the concept of social structure in education. Correcting the record about Althusser's thinking in the traditional narrative of critical educational research becomes an opportunity to revisit fundamental questions for thinking about school in its social context. For students and researchers of education, critical theory, sociology of education, and critical pedagogy, this book will be a resource for rethinking the social foundations of education, both as a field and as a set of theoretical frameworks for educational research. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Table of Contents

Contents -- Acknowledgments ix -- Introduction 1 -- Part I Education as an Ideological State Apparatus: Eleven Rules -- 1 An Attempt to Interpret the Events of May 13 -- 2 The Rule of Keys: Social Reproduction 17 -- 3 The Rule of Hands: Relations of Production 21 -- 4 The Competency Rule 25 -- 5 The Rule of Special Thirds: Base and Superstructure 33 -- 6 The System, Toe, and Anchor Rules: ISA Basics 39 -- 7 The Causality Rule: Grey Cows and Green Cheese 43 -- 8 The Struggle Rule: The Necessity of Contingency 49 -- 9 The School Rule 53 -- 10 The Go Rule 59 -- 11 Conclusion 67 -- Part II The Common Sense about Althusser: Reassessing Critical Education -- 12 The Three Critiques 73 -- 13 Foundations of Critical Education: Apple and Giroux's Indecision 77 -- 14 Roots of the Common Sense 91 -- 15 A Frustrated Student: Rancière and the ISAs 95 -- 16 Formalization of the Provocation: Erben and Gleesen 101 -- 17 Against Generality: Hirst 107 -- 18 A Trotskyite Calling Stalin: Callinicos 111 -- 19 The Eagle's Apostasy: E. P. Thompson 113 -- 20 Ashes and Promiscuity: Willis and Connell 121 -- 21 Conclusion 123 -- Part III Structural Education: Toward an Althusserian Pedagogy -- 22 Developments in Structure 129 -- 23 The Structure of Race in Education: From Hall to Leonardo 143 -- 24 The Structure of Gender in Education: Wolpe, Barrett, Arnot, Deem, -- and Valli 155 -- 25 Ideology in Struggle: Advances in Interpellation 169 -- Conclusion 179 -- Epilogue 187 -- References 193 -- Index 203.