Overview

Though conservatives and criticalists perhaps espouse different values and social assumptions as rationale for reforming schools, they both seek to ""fix"" schools. Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools argues that in this move to fix, they both either deny or misread the material dimension of schooling, thereby unnecessarily limiting possibilities for human flourishing within educational environments. In order to unfix schools, making them dynamic and critical places of engagement, educators must review and revive their critical roots through Marx to overcome the educational necrophilia that has simply overwhelmed schools through the material conditions both within and without. Critical pedagogy is insufficient for such a project, with some iterations of it becoming errors of commission. Moving from Marx to Althusser to Illich, Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools concludes with a recommendation for unschooling in schools which requires getting students out of schools as much as possible.

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9781433161810

Table of Contents

Reviews

Testing, grading, tracking: the machinery of `fixing' education. But what of the alternative? When critique becomes dogma, and that which once melted into air has regained its solidity, this book is just the solvent we need. Timely and incisive, it dares to challenge the shortcomings of the many on the educational left whose answers to the testing problems of our day have become ossified or neutralised by attrition and compromise. An alertness to the working of neoliberal ideology informs John E. Petrovic's perspective, cast uncompromisingly through the lens of Marxist analysis. It is to his credit that Petrovic revives the spirit of much maligned writers such as Althusser and Illich whose idiosyncratic emergence at a particular historical moment should not be seen to restrict their application now to the fixity of schooling for neoliberalism, and in so doing to propose unschooling (in school!) beyond the fetishisation of grades in their commodity form. -Simon Boxley, University of Winchester, United Kingdom This is a very interesting and timely contribution to the discussions in the field of education. With the recent worldwide rise of extremism, both of the left and right, this book provides a well-balanced and thought-provoking discussion on the problems of, and need to (un)fix schools. There is a longstanding tradition of both liberal and conservative groups seeking to fix education and thereby applying their too often temporary solution. However, as the author suggests, it is our urge to try to control and fix education that might be the very problem with education; thus education needs to be unfixed. In addition, it also makes credible reference to some stimulating philosophical figures, such as Louis Pierre Althusser, and this adds strongly to the appeal of the volume. The format and general style make it very suitable for both students as well as academics. -Alex Guilherme, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil John E. Petrovic's Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools provides provocative critiques of both liberal and progressive programs of school reform. Providing sharp critiques of mainstream and alternative attempts to transform schools, Petrovic accuses these efforts of trying to `fix' the problem of schools as leaving the institutions intact. He instead suggests ways of `unfixing schools' that will make schooling more open to their communities and making learning a more collaborative project that takes a multiplicity of forms to make schools more flexible and democratic while promoting freedom, criticality, conviviality, cooperation, and community. Petrovic's provocative analysis requires us to rethink schooling, critical pedagogy, and our own processes of teaching and learning. -Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Philosophy of Education Chair, UCLA

""Testing, grading, tracking: the machinery of 'fixing' education. But what of the alternative? When critique becomes dogma, and that which once melted into air has regained its solidity, this book is just the solvent we need. Timely and incisive, it dares to challenge the shortcomings of the many on the educational left whose answers to the testing problems of our day have become ossified or neutralised by attrition and compromise. An alertness to the working of neoliberal ideology informs John E. Petrovic's perspective, cast uncompromisingly through the lens of Marxist analysis. It is to his credit that Petrovic revives the spirit of much maligned writers such as Althusser and Illich whose idiosyncratic emergence at a particular historical moment should not be seen to restrict their application now to the fixity of schooling for neoliberalism, and in so doing to propose unschooling (in school!) beyond the fetishisation of grades in their commodity form.""-Simon Boxley, University of Winchester, United Kingdom ""John E. Petrovic's Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools provides provocative critiques of both liberal and progressive programs of school reform. Providing sharp critiques of mainstream and alternative attempts to transform schools, Petrovic accuses these efforts of trying to 'fix' the problem of schools as leaving the institutions intact. He instead suggests ways of 'unfixing schools' that will make schooling more open to their communities and making learning a more collaborative project that takes a multiplicity of forms to make schools more flexible and democratic while promoting freedom, criticality, conviviality, cooperation, and community. Petrovic's provocative analysis requires us to rethink schooling, critical pedagogy, and our own processes of teaching and learning.""-Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Philosophy of Education Chair, UCLA ""This is a very interesting and timely contribution to the discussions in the field of education. With the recent worldwide rise of extremism, both of the left and right, this book provides a well-balanced and thought-provoking discussion on the problems of, and need to (un)fix schools. There is a longstanding tradition of both liberal and conservative groups seeking to fix education and thereby applying their too often temporary solution. However, as the author suggests, it is our urge to try to control and fix education that might be the very problem with education; thus education needs to be unfixed. In addition, it also makes credible reference to some stimulating philosophical figures, such as Louis Pierre Althusser, and this adds strongly to the appeal of the volume. The format and general style make it very suitable for both students as well as academics.""-Alex Guilherme, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Author Information

John E. Petrovic is Professor and Program Coordinator for the Social and Cultural Studies Concentration in the College of Education at The University of Alabama. He earned his PhD from University of Colorado in foundations of education, specializing in philosophy and policy studies. He has been President of the Southeast Philosophy of Education Society and Secretary of the American Educational Studies Association. He has served on several editorial boards including those of the American Educational Research Journal, International Multilingual Research Journal, and Thresholds in Education. He is Executive Editor of Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education. He is author of A Post-liberal Approach to Language Policy (2015) and his recent edited volumes include Indigenous Philosophies of Education Around the World (co-edited with Roxanne Mitchell, 2018) and Citizenship Education Around the World: Local Contexts and Global Possibilities (co-edited with Aaron Kuntz, 2014). Petrovic teaches courses on multicultural education, language policy, and philosophy of education.

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