Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: ch. One The Cultural Politics of Education -- Cultural Politics: Stuart Hall's Constructivist Theory of Culture -- Cultural Politics and the "Responsible" Teacher -- Cultural Politics and Class: Pierre Bourdieu and the Forms of Capital -- Implications for Contemporary Educational Policy -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Two The Political Economy of Education -- Political Economy and Social Reproduction in Schooling -- Schooling under Fordism and Post-Fordism -- Limitations of Economic Perspectives: Human Agency and Resistance -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Three The Political Psychology of Education -- A Critical Psychology of Education -- The Specificity of Context and Student Experience -- Society and Selves Constituted by Difference -- Repression -- The Productivity of Power in the Making of the Self -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Four Hegemony.

Contents note continued: Gramsci and Hegemony -- The Poverty of "Good" Suburban Schooling -- Why It Matters Now -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Five Disciplinary Power, Race, and Examinations -- Disciplinary Power -- Disciplining the Black Student Body -- The Possibilities of Resistance -- Theoretical Problems with Foucauldian Power -- Conclusion -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- Note -- ch. Six Biopolitics and Education -- What Is Biopolitics? -- A Shift in Sovereignty -- Producing Knowledge of Life -- Making Subjects -- An Egalitarian and Emancipatory Biopolitics? -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Seven Neoliberalism and Corporate School Reform -- What Is Neoliberalism? -- Neoliberal Educational Restructuring -- Profit Motives -- Ideological Motives -- Conclusion -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes.

Contents note continued: ch. Eight The Politics of Gender in the Current Education Reforms -- The Material War on Women in Education -- The Symbolic War on Women in Education -- The Gendered Rationality/Experience Split as a Political Tactic in Education -- Inclusion and School to Work -- Performativity -- Conclusion -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- ch. Nine The Politics of Globalization and Education -- Global Corporate Schooling -- Supranational Organizations -- IMF/World Bank -- USAID -- Conclusion -- Suggested Further Reading -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- ch. Ten The Politics of the Status Quo or a New Common School Movement? -- The Original Common School Movement -- Corporate School Reform as an Enclosure of the Commons -- Distinguishing between Public and Private Control in Education -- Conclusion -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- Case Studies Struggles for Critical Education.

Contents note continued: Case One Social Justice High School, Little Village Neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois -- Case Two Chile, from the "Penguin Revolution" to the "Chilean Winter" -- Case Three Porto Allegre, Brazil -- Case Four Test Refusal in Seattle -- Case Five Chicago Teachers Union Strike.

This text provides an introduction to both the political dimensions of schooling and the politics of recent educational reform debates. The book offers both undergraduates and starting graduate students in education an understanding of numerous dimensions of the contested field of education, addressing questions of political economy and class, cultural politics, race, gender, globalization, neoliberalism, and biopolitics. Discussions work through contemporary reform debates that include some of the most widely discussed reform topics such as school privatization, standardized testing, common core curriculum, discipline, and technology. The book covers contemporary educational debates and seriously considers views across the political spectrum from the vantage point of critical education, emphasizing schooling for broader social equality and justice.