Marxism, Postmodernism and Education

204 Pages·2007·0.92 MB·English

by  Mike Cole

Marxism and Educational Theory
We live in a world where thousands make massive profits out of the labours of
others, while those others exist as wage slaves, millions of whom die of starva-
tion and poverty-related illlness every year. The fundamental aim of Marxism is
the overthrow of the anarchic, exploitative and eco-destructive system of world
capitalism and its replacement by world socialism and equality. To build a
socialist world is a task of gargantuan proportions, but one that Marxists believe
is eminently achievable.
This book addresses some of these challenges from within educational
theory. The key theoretical issues addressed are:
• utopian socialism;
• poststructuralism and postmodernism;
• transmodernism;
• globalisation, neo-liberalism and environmental destruction;
• the New Imperialism;
• critical race theory.
Marxism and Educational Theorycompellingly and informatively propels the
debate forward in the pursuit of that socialist future. In that quest, suggestions
are made to connect theoretical issues with the more practical concerns of the
school and the classroom.
With a specially written foreword by Peter McLaren, this timely book will be
of interest to academics and students interested in educational theory, the soci-
ology of education, sociology, politics, philosophy and critical theory.
Mike Cole is Research Professor in Education and Equality and Head of
Research at Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln, UK.

Marxism and Educational
Theory
Origins and issues
Mike Cole
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2008 Mike Cole
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cole, Mike, 1946–
Marxism and educational theory : origins and issues / Mike Cole.
p. cm.
1. Socialism and education. 2. Socialism–Philosophy.
3. Education–Philosophy. 4. Social justice. I. Title.
HX526.C483 2008
370.1–dc22
2007019519
ISBN 0-203-39732-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-33170-6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-33171-4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-33170-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-33171-5 (pbk)
For my mum Gladys Rosina Cole, 1914–2005
And for my grandson Leo Cole Rochelle, 2004–

Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements xxi
1 Introduction: personal and political reflections on a
life in education 1
PART I
Origins 11
2 Socialism and Marxist theory 13
3 Marxist theory and education 28
4 Nietzsche, poststructuralism and postmodernism 37
PART II
Issues 51
5 Poststructuralism and postmodernism in educational theory:
social change and social justice 53
6 Transmodernism in educational theory: a step closer
to liberation? 68
7 Globalisation, neo-liberalism and environmental destruction 85
8 The New Imperialism: postmodern, transmodern and Marxist
perspectives 98
9 Critical Race Theory and racialisation: a case study of
contemporary racist Britain 112
viii Contents
10 Common objections to Marxism and a Marxist response 129
Afterword 139
Appendix: Robert Miles and the concept of racism 140
Notes 142
References 155
Index 176
Foreword
It has been over five years since a cadre of what were identified as ‘al Qaida oper-
atives’ hijacked four jetliners undetected, completed the greatest act of non-state
terror in human history with no interference from the most sophisticated air force
on the planet, and the U.S. intelligence community managed to have their plot
solved the day it was carried out. The very next day Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld called for an attack on Iraq (Secretary of State Colin Powell had per-
suaded President Bush that U.S. public opinion had to be prepared for an attack
on Iraq and that it would be easier to begin with an attack on Afghanistan). Just
48 hours after the World Trade Center towers came crashing down and thousands
of innocent victims were confirmed dead as a result of a deliberate act of mass
murder, President George W. Bush visited the National Cathedral and, flanked by
evangelist Billy Graham, a cardinal, a rabbi and an imam, intoned in a drawl
befitting a cowboy prophet a permanent and unyielding war on terror, noting
that America’s “responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks
and rid the world of evil”. The neoconservatives who were members of the
Project for the New American Century (a think tank established in 1997 that
included many members of the former Reagan administration who were to
become members of the Bush Jr. administration, such as Donald Rumsfeld,
Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz) and who called for U.S. world economic,
moral, and military domination – a “pax Americana” – brayed that the events of
9/11 gave them a reason sufficient for urging preemptive strikes on “evil nations”
and demanding “total war”. And once Bush’s threat that nations are either with
the United States or against the United States won him approbation from the U.S.
public, Afghanistan was the first nation to be attacked, Iraq the second and
Lebanon the third (with Israel as our proxy) with perhaps attacks on Syria and
Iran to follow in a campaign against what President Bush now refers to as fight-
ing “Islamic fascists”.
The war in Iraq, supposititously proclaimed as a war in the larger battle for
freedom and democracy in the Middle East, for the liberation of the bedraggled
masses of strangers for whom the U.S. ruling elite has little sympathy but whom
are never the less deemed to be in need of colonial tutelage and avuncular care
(as in the “White Man’s Burden”) in order to create the kind of society that
serves as a reliable and malleable client regime of the United States, is a war for