resistance education

Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition On the surface, the macro themes of Theory and Resistance in Education are neither new nor startling. Giroux wants schools to participate in the recreation of a new society; he perceives schools as viable and potent vehicles for dramatic social change. However, the analytical process he applies to arrive at those macro themes consists of relatively new and unexplored methodology within U.S. educational circles, since it represents a potentially dynamic application of the Frankfurt School of “critical sociology.” It is a methodology that values political action and utilizes “critique” (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). It is from that methodology that Giroux builds his pedagogy and his curriculum: “A Pedagogy for the Opposition.” Described by Hansen as “an effort to come to grips with the nature of individual consciousness and its relation to social order and change,” critical sociology “emphasizes that human choice is not between simple alternatives, that seemingly contradictory things can...