Pedagogy, Praxis and Purpose in Education

Recent years have shown the growth of federal legislation and programs having a profound impact on educational policy and practice, and a decline in reliance on broadly based educational justifications. Paralleling this development has been the emergence of well-endowed and influential private foundations, and an increase in corporate influence in shaping policy. In this volume the authors consider the discourse, rhetoric, and underlying values that sustain these developments alongside those that underlie more longstanding and competing educational theories and practices.

This volume highlights the importance of recognizing opposing conceptualizations of education—some more educationally productive than others— and their core values, approaches to student learning, strengths and weaknesses, and justification. The authors analyze and critique what Jane Roland Martin has referred to as ‘the deep structure of educational thought’, and seek improved educational policy and practice with particular reference to curriculum and pedagogy. It features a comparative analysis of competing discourses including autocratic control, limited personal development, and praxis.

C. M. Mulcahy is Associate Professor in Reading and Language Arts, Central Connecticut State University, USA. Alongside her book, Marginalized Literacies (2010), she has published in Irish Educational Studies, Language and Cultural Diversity in Education (2005), Critical Literacy as Resistance (2008), and Transforming Schools (2013).

D. E. Mulcahy is Assistant Professor and Director of Elementary Education, Department of Education, Wake Forest University, USA. His publications include Education in North America (co-editor, 2014), articles in Radical History Review (co-author) and The Educational Forum, and a chapter in The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology (2006).

D. G. Mulcahy is Connecticut State University Professor and Professor in the School of Educaton and Professional Studies, Central Connecticut State University, USA. His publications include Knowledge, Gender, and Schooling (2002), The Educated Person (2008), and Education in North America (co-editor, 2014).