Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age

A powerful examination of the rightist resurgence in education and the challenges it presents to concerned educators, Official Knowledge analyzes the effects of conservative beliefs and strategies on educational policy and practice. Apple looks specifically at the conservative agenda's incursion into education through the curriculum, textbook adoption policies and the efforts of the private and business sectors to centralize its interests within schools. At the same time, however, he points out areas of hope for the future, showing how students and teachers have continued the struggle and are now successfully engaged in building more democratic education policies and practices. Finally, Apple writes in personal terms about his own teaching techniques and work with students which challenge some of the ideological and educational policies and practices of the Right.

About the Author :
Michael W. Apple is John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the editor of the Critical Social Thought series (Routledge).

Review :
"Open. Personal. Revealing. Also political and panoramic. This is a humanistic document for our positivistic educational times. Read it to understand what's going on. Read it--criticially, as Mike Apple would insist--to think through the democratic alternatives. Mike Apple has reaffirmed and amplified his unique contribution." -- Paul Willis "In the present social and political crisis, at the same time as freedoms are limited they are also creatively expressed in our daily lives. For progressive educators, this reading of the world demands that we forge and live what I call `the pedagogy of hope.' This pedagogy includes in itself the need both to struggle against oppression and to construct political and pedagogical paths towards a democratic and critical education. Constructing these paths requires us to struggle against the hegemony of the intellectual elites who have traditionally defined what is so-called `official knowledge.' It is necessary to reconstruct these authoritarian ways of thinking that devalue and exclude the knowledge of the people and popular culture. As Official Knowledge demonstrates, Michael Apple is among the most distinguished scholars in the world who are involved in this struggle to build a critical and democratic education." -- Paulo Freire "I have read this book with enjoyment and considerable excitement. Having followed Michael Apple's significant work over the years, I have experienced an intellectual charge with this text that has given me real pleasure. It opens a range of new perspectives on the role of the publishing and television industries in public education, on the emergent "new knowledge" and the new voices demanding to be heard. To be able to decode and interpret what is working on the schools is to be in a position to deal with the challenges posed by conservatism and the contradictions educators are bound to face. Apple provides the critical tools we need for understanding and repair. Moreover, he points to unexplored possibilities when it comes to restoring a sense of agency to teachers and reconceiving curriculum design. We may be living in a time of turning points and beginnings. This book not only energizes; it helps chart the way." -- Maxine Greene