Theory and Resistance in Education

Reissued with a new introduction from Henry A. Giroux, this classic work provides theoretical and political tools for addressing how pedagogy, knowledge, resistance, and power can be analyzed within and across a variety of cultural spheres, including but not limited to the schools. This edition includes four new chapters covering critical pedagogy and resistance, cultural politics and public intellectuals, challenging gangster capitalism and the lies and violence of fascist politics. These new chapters show how the calls for radical social change made in the previous edition are needed now more than ever in the struggle against fascism, authoritarianism, racism and other systems of oppression that are still built into society and our education systems. The book includes a foreword by Paulo Freire and a preface by Stanley Aronowitz.

Giroux uses concepts such as ideology, culture, and power to clarify how schools and education serve the interests of a select few in society Giroux offers the educator a hope, and a means, for influencing change., This book [is] of immense importance. Giroux is a first-rate thinker struggling with theoretical problems of incredible difficulty... A provocative book., Marks a significant moment in the development of a radical theory of education., I first read Theory and Resistance in Education in 1990 and I vividly recall staying up late into the night unable to put it down. It radically transformed my understanding of education and led me to teaching and educational scholarship. The new edition brings Giroux’s groundbreaking critical pedagogical project right up to the most pressing political, cultural, and economic challenges of the present renewing and deepening its original force as a tool for praxis., Theory and Resistance in Education was an instant classic when it first appeared, over 4 decades ago. The years since have only added weight to its analysis and its politics, as we have seen the far right engage artfully and brutally in cultural politics in search of instrumental control of student life. Now, in this revised edition, Theory and Resistance is an instant classic all over again, as Henry Giroux walks, trots, and runs across the prospects and obstacles to a freer time, a fairer world.

Henry A. Giroux holds the Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. His books include On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd Edition (2020), Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy (2021), Pedagogy of Resistance (2022), Insurrections (2023) and Fascism on Trial (2024), all published by Bloomsbury.