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

This text is a provocative investigation of the political, social, and economic factors underlying classroom practices, offering a unique introduction to the contemporary field of critical pedagogy. Life in Schools features excerpts from the author's best-selling work, Cries from the Corridor: The New Suburban Ghetto. The text provokes analytic discussion of social problems and a theoretical framework for formulating potential solutions (Parts III & IV). It also includes a new discussion of race and class, a chapter on the social construction of whiteness, and a new chapter that challenges current domestic and foreign policies of the current White House administration (including the No Child Left Behind Act) and their impact upon American public schooling.

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This work integrates the author's , a 1980 collection of diary entries written when he was a school teacher in a working-class and immigrant Canadian neighborhood, with reflections on the fundamental contradictions of capitalist schooling in North America. The author provides a socio-political context for understanding racism, sexism, and homophobia and helps teachers challenge capitalist schooling by empowering their students with a critical ideology and a set of political strategies. McLaren, known for his original contributions to educational theory and for his political activism, teaches in the Division of Urban Schooling, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California-Los Angeles. He is the author and editor of 35 books. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)