Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life is a nonfiction book about critical pedagogy by Henry Giroux. In the book Giroux analyzes and critiques various concepts of pedagogy, arguing that schools should not be subservient to the existing power structure but should instead be sites of struggle and exist in solidarity with the oppressed. He adopts the framework of citizenship education, defining citizenship as the struggle for empowerment.
The book was originally published in 1988 under the title Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life: Critical Pedagogy in the Modern Age by University of Minnesota Press. An updated edition with a new preface was published in 2005 by Paradigm Publishers, with the title Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life: Democracy's Promise and Education's Challenge.
Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life received mixed reviews. While reviewers generally praised Giroux's analysis of education and democracy, some reviewers criticized the lack of analysis of Giroux's own arguments in the book, as well as the lack of discussion of how the arguments could be implemented.
Background
Before writing Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life, Henry Giroux authored and co-authored several other books related to what he characterized as an ongoing crisis in education. As a radical democrat, Giroux argued against the pursuit of apoliticism in public education, extending the ideas of John Dewey and similar thinkers who presented schools as core institutions of democracy.
Publication
Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life was first published in 1988 by University of Minnesota Press, as a 257-page book with the full title Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life: Critical Pedagogy in the Modern Age. This edition was republished in 1989 by Routledge, and was translated to the Spanish language as for publication by in 1993.
An updated edition of the book, with a new preface, was published by Paradigm Publishers in 2005. The new edition was retitled Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life: Democracy's Promise and Education's Challenge.
Synopsis
Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life contains Henry Giroux's critical analysis of various political conceptions of pedagogy. Giroux criticizes positions across the political spectrum including the conservative and New Right perspectives on education along with various liberal and leftist views. He adopts the concept of citizenship education from conservative pedagogy, rejecting what he describes as the tendency of leftist theorists to "downplay citizenship as an emancipatory category", but also rejects uncritical patriotism and its association with citizenship. Instead, he defines citizenship as the ongoing pursuit of empowerment. In connection with this definition, he states that the goal of education is "elimination of those ideological and material conditions that promote various forms of subjugation, segregation, brutality, and marginalization."
While distinguishing his argument from cultural relativism, which he describes as not sufficiently critical, Giroux argues that schools should be sites of struggle into which identity, social change, and empowerment are incorporated. He criticizes the existing structure of education in the United States as subservient to the broader structure of power, stating that "notions of struggle, debate, community, and democracy have become subversive categories" as a result of their subservience to the status quo structure of society. He additionally argues that education should be liberatory and schools should maintain active solidarity with oppressed groups.
Within these broad themes, Giroux spends the second chapter of Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life discussing ethics, morals, and values in education. He argues that progressive and radical educators should engage with ethical issues, but should not simply dictate what is right and wrong, instead suggesting a focus on critical analysis of whether or not certain actions are politically and morally responsible. In another chapter, Giroux analyzes teacher education, which he argues should focus on "Teacher Education as Cultural Politics" and critical pedagogy rather than simply rules and regulations.