Customer Reviews

Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education (5th Edition)

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For too long, one-trick theoretical "experts" (tearing down the work of others) on the educational left have reduced students to passive consumers of knowledge-leaving them fatigued and disillusioned. I think it is safe to say that McLaren's body of work does not fall into this category-as it is never dull or predictable. Blending theory with biography and history at the intersection of where students/teachers construct themselves subjectively within schools, McLaren's book Life in Schools offers a real-and-imagined "pedagogy of hope" (Friere's words) or--as he prefers to term it--a "revolutionary critical pedagogy." Mollifying the gnashing anti-theory critics, McLaren acts as our anti-tour guide of capitalist schooling through a dialectical process reflection and critique upon his own unique experience as an elementary school teacher in Canada. By situating this critique (which is at the core of a revolutionary critical pedagogy) not in the space of the self but in the revolutionary site of the social, McLaren puts the ideology of capitalist knowledge industry permanently on the defensive. He achieves this by providing the reader with theoretical and empirical tools to both understand and intervene in emerging global structures that are increasingly organizing and regulating everyday practices of schooling. Offering new insights into the re-enchanted field of "revolutionary critical pedagogy," (e.g., Paula Allman, Dave Hill and Glenn Rikowski), McLaren's book Life in Schools is a must read for hope-deprived students and teachers struggling against the neo-liberal model of education, which is immune to the plight of millions of the world's poorest children.

I am a student teacher (who has returned to college in his 30s) and highly recommend this book to anyone about to enter the classroom. Unlike one of the reviews I read posted on this site, I did not find McLaren's writing style difficult read. In fact, many of the central concepts, themes and issues that I have struggled to understand were clearly defined for the first time in my training and the book also provided a helpful overview of key players in the field (yes, the first section provides excepts of his journal as a teacher in Canada but the second section is where the action takes place, at least for someone like myself, who is trying to get beyond writing the umbiquitous and annoying confessional style "journals" that I am required to produce in the assembly-line production model of teacher education, without any adequate exposure to the various theories that might help me to make sense of my experience within the larger "system" that McLaren spotlights in this book). Obviously, McLaren is a controversal figure and his writings cause people to get stirred up and to disagree with him. However, I found his writing style to be inspiring! Within the current political climate, I know that some days it is hard to even drag myself out of bed but I really don't want to join a generation of weary, disillusioned "leftists," whose politics go no deeper than a Nation subscription. McLaren's book is a call to action and as huge an undertaking as it appears to me right now I hope that I can make some sort of a difference in the classroom.

Peter McLaren presents information that evokes strong feelings and inner thoughts from the reader. I am pleased with the information that he presents. However, his vocabulary forced me to bring out the dictionary to bring a better understanding to what he actually was saying. The "ethnographic" presentation of his experiences in his early years of teaching were thought provoking and at times depressing in nature. To think that children come to school with so much "baggage" is a wonder that they can learn at all. McLaren is a writer that may upset some educators. In my case he brings out the passion for continuing to teach and to help the children that are in need the most. He has allowed me to reach deep into my "teaching soul" and continue my quest for educating "all" of our children that attend our schools.

Peter McLaren's book Life in Schools is among the very few texts in critical pedagogy that connects empirical to theoretical and everyday experiences to general ideas about schooling in an understandable manner. It builds its solid arguments in a humanist Marxist tradition, and stays firmly in our, the common people, side. It is a serious and honest book in which teacher's and student's everyday experiences are situated in a larger political context. It's a book for those of us who dare to teach, talk and think critically in these times of global terror.

Peter McLaren's expanded and revised text on education gives a lot of insight into his life, conditions in inner-city Canadian schools (it's not just hockey and bacon curing!) and the need to adopt a new educational paradigm based more on respect for the induvidual needs of students. With a keen eye and a compassionate soul, McLaren chronicles the lives of his students, their families, and the world they live in. As a teacher, I can attest that this section is not only moving, but can make one a better educator if it is reflected on and the lessons from it implemented.

However, the impenetrable political/educational diatribe that consumes the latter part of the book could and should have been left on the editing room floor. McLaren, angrily, indignantly, and with the use of WAY too many vocabulary words, twists Marxism into knots trying to show how it would be better for students, teachers, all mankind and the little fishes too if we adopted socialist principles. (Okay, the little fishes part I made up but you get it.) It's unfortunate that this odd fusion of chronicles and politics must be, and one wonders why Allyn and Bacon doesn't remarket the book with the first part expanded and the second part dropped. But who are we to wonder at the ways of the mighty publishing gods? We can only offer our burned out lightbulbs and worn bookmarks as tribute, and hope that they will be kind.

I was forced to purchase this book for a graduate level education class. Even as I come close to finishing a 3rd degree I have never read anything quite like this. Unfortunately I already sold my book back so I have to go on memory. What you get with this book is a guy who sounds so stuffy using such arcane vocabulary you can't believe he really wants people to critically think about his points. Within the first 15 pages you get assaulted with unabated political rhetoric full of half truths and outright lies. This guy is the polar opposite of Rush Limbaugh and about as equally balanced.

After 50 pages of McLaren playing "vocabulary police" we are sent to read his diaries of what took place during his first years of teaching in a dreadful Toronto school district. I have tried to find other sources to verify his diaries one way or the other but have been unable to do so. And with the tone and slanted views I find it hard to believe most of his diary entries. His other writings are so exaggerated and politically bent I can't help but believe I am reading a list of half-truths in his diary in order to support his Marxist political views.

Regarding more recent issues such as No Child Left Behind he does make some good points. But you find those points in a much more balanced approach from many other reasonable sources.

Unless you have a doctorate in political science and education you will most likely be lost in the vocabulary. If you are going to read this book I implore you to use his own medicine -- think critically.

The only good thing is that the review system does not let me rate this zero stars. From the obscure language to the fight the system attitude, this book does nothing except expound upon Profesor McLaren's political views. This publication points at one facet of the discussion of critical pedagogy and fails to evaluate the other aspects. As a political work, this book appears well researched, but look elsewhere for a book on critical pedagogy.