William B. Stanley - Böcker

This book examines the relationship between contemporary forms of critical theory and social reconstructionism, as they relate and contribute to the construction of a radical theory of education. It illustrates many of the persistent issues, problems, and goals of radical educational reform, including the importance of developing a language of possibility, utopian thought, and the critical competence necessary to reveal and deconstruct forms of oppression. Stanley perceptively and clearly reexamines new challenges posed to various forms of critical pedagogy (including reconstructionism) by the development of postmodern and poststructuralist theory, focusing on the connections and continuities between them.

The authors of the nine other chapters in this book have struggled with the issues discussed above in several different ways. The chapter authors represent a wide range of views and expertise within the field of social stud-ies. Some have been leading social studies scholars for three or four decades. Other authors represent new voices that have begun to shape the direction social studies will take in the future. The topics examined here include the debate over how to define social studies, social studies and the impact of the standards/accountability movement, the contextual con-straints/ restraints on teaching social studies, education for democracy, rationales for teaching history, multicultural education, global education, social studies and educational technology, and the nature and effectiveness of social studies research.