Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Education as an Ideological State Apparatus: Eleven Rules 1. An Attempt to Interpret the Events of May 2. The Rule of Keys: Social Reproduction 3. The Rule of Hands: Relations of Production 4. The Competency Rule 5. The Rule of Special Thirds: Base and Superstructure 6. The System, Toe, and Anchor Rules: ISA Basics 7. The Causality Rule: Grey Cows and Green Cheese 8. The Struggle Rule: The Necessity of Contingency 9. The School Rule 10. The Go Rule 11. Conclusion Part II: The Common Sense About Althusser: Foundations of Critical Education 12. The Three Critiques 13. Foundations of Critical Education: Apple and Giroux’s Indecision 14. Roots of the Common Sense 15. Against Generality: Hirst 16. A Trotskyite Calling Stalin: Callinicos 17. The Eagle’s Apostasy: E. P. Thompson 18. Ashes and Promiscuity: Willis and Connell 19. Conclusion Part III: Structural Education: Towards an Althusserian Pedagogy 20. Developments in Structure, Reproduction, and the Relations of Production 21. The Structure of Race in Education: From Hall to Leonardo 22. Structural Analysis of Girls’ Education: AnnMarie Wolpe 23. Gender, History, Duality: Barrett 24. Marxist Feminist Education Research: Arnot, Deem, and Vallis 25. Ideology in Struggle: Advances in Interpellation Conclusion Epilogue References Index

Promotional Information

A reexamination of Althusser’s philosophy of education for the 21st century.

About the Author

David I. Backer is Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies at West Chester University, USA. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America.

Reviews

In this significant contribution to critical educational studies, Backer rethinks common interpretations of Althusser as unable to recognize human agency and re-establishes Althusser's ideas in conversations about social and cultural reproduction. This is the most comprehensive and nuanced reading of Althusser's thinking about education available in the English language.
*Isaac Gottesman, Lenore Tingle Howard '42 Associate Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Education, Connecticut College, USA*

Backer delivers a detailed critique of the ideologies pervading critical education studies today, and offers a much-needed route towards an Althusserian pedagogy. Backer shows us that pedagogy, much like philosophy, is a battleground. His original reading of Althusser introduces a decisive theoretical weapon onto this terrain.
*Samuel J.R. Mercer, Lecturer in Social Policy, School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK*