Struggle for Democracy in Education

Michael W. Apple is John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

'Michael Apple has never settled for easy answers. His scholarship confronts the messy, complex, and often contradictory challenges posed by the real world – a world he has experienced as teacher, parent, union president and world leading scholar. In this important new study Apple and his co-authors draw on real world cases to explore some of the most pressing dilemmas facing critical educators in the twenty-first century.' —David Gillborn is Director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education (CRRE) at the University of Birmingham, UK'What makes The Struggle for Democracy in Education so special is that it is refreshingly honest; it does not romanticise the long, slow, and at times, painful work of resistance against injustices and undemocratic forces in education and society. Rather, it inspires and reinvigorates us to persist. The detailed analysis of egalitarian educational movements in the United States, China and Brazil enables readers to see how activism leads to real social change.'—Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies at University College Dublin, Ireland 'The Struggle for Democracy in Education is a theoretically rich, concrete analysis of the assault on public education and actual efforts to construct democratic, liberatory alternatives. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how contestations over racialized neoliberal agendas play out in real time, on the ground. By illuminating the contradictions and complexities of these struggles in different contexts, it provides invaluable lessons and spaces for action and hope.'—Pauline Lipman is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Director of the Collaborative of Equity and Social Justice in Education at University of Illinois-Chicago, USA

• Acknowledgments1 The Struggle for Democracy in Education2 The Contradictions of a Critically Democratic School3 Struggling for the Local: Money, Power, and the Possibilities of Victories in the Politics of Education4 How "Democracy" Can Lead to Inequality: Class Relations and the Realities of Educational Reform5 Can Critical Democracy Last? Porto Alegre and the Struggle for "Thick" Democracy in Education6 The Struggle Continues: Lessons Learned and What Can Be DoneAuthorsIndex