Education and Power

First published in 1982, Education and Power remains an important volume for those committed to critical education. In this text Michael Apple first articulated his theory on educational institutions and the reproduction of and resistance to unequal power relations, and provided a thorough examination of the ways in which race-gender-class dynamics are embedded in, and reflected through, curricular issues. While many of the theories set forward in this book are now taken for granted by the left in education, they were nothing short of revolutionary when first proposed.

In this newly reissued classic edition, Apple suggests that we need to take seriously the complicated and contradictory economic, political and cultural structures that provide for some of the most important limits on, and possibilities for, critical education. He re-examines his earlier arguments and reflects on what has happened over the intervening years. Education and Power is a vital example of the call to challenge the assumptions that underpin so much of what happens in education.

Michael W. Apple is the John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.