The State and the Politics of Knowledge

Formal education, by and large, is organized and controlled by the government. This means that by its very nature the entire schooling process - how it is paid for, who chooses the textbooks and even who has the right to answer these questions - is political. A powerful critical analysis of past and current efforts to use education for political purposes-liberal conservative-tState and the Politics of Knowledgeoffers compelling portraits of the role education plays in struggles over colonialism, nationalism, religion, class, gender, and sexuality. Not only does Apple shows us how politics informs educational policy and knowledge, Apple turns the question around and asks how education can be used in the service of fostering democratic and socially critical policies and connecting these policies to broader social movements. He answers this question with an international perspective, refining our ideas about the state and education, and finds critical, empirical, historical and practical tools,as well as examples of how these tools might be used effectively to form collective political action. Based on Apple's previous criticisms of dominant attempts to reform education,State and the Politics of Knowledgedescribes how to interrupt this dominance and create truly democratic and realistic alternatives to the ways markets, standards, and testing are now being forced onto schools.

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