Educational Realities and The Tasks of the Critical Scholar/Activist in Education

Professor Mike W Apple, Institute of Advanced Studies Distinguished Visiting Fellow, will deliver the Centre for Research in Race and Education’s annual lecture. Neoliberal, neoconservative, and managerial reforms now dominate the educational landscape internationally. They have taken on an almost religious power in that they seem to be nearly immune to counter evidence. Yet, there are alternatives to them that have made a significant difference, if we reject the simplistic idea that education can only reproduce dominance. Starting by critically examining dominant tendencies and then drawing from his recent book ‘Can Education Change Society?’, Professor Apple will turn to the responsibilities of those who wish to interrupt dominant tendencies and then discuss the tasks of the "public intellectual,", the critical scholar activist, in building and defending more critically democratic and anti-racist educational theories, policies, and practices. Michael W. Apple is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading critical educators. His reputation is built on an exceptional body of scholarship that extends from the 1970s to the present day.