Althusser and Education

David I. Backer is Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies at West Chester University, USA. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America.

• Introduction Part I: Education as an Ideological State Apparatus: Eleven Rules1. An Attempt to Interpret the Events of May2. The Rule of Keys: Social Reproduction 3. The Rule of Hands: Relations of Production 4. The Competency Rule5. The Rule of Special Thirds: Base and Superstructure 6. The System, Toe, and Anchor Rules: ISA Basics7. The Causality Rule: Grey Cows and Green Cheese 8. The Struggle Rule: The Necessity of Contingency9. The School Rule10. The Go Rule 11. ConclusionPart II: The Common Sense About Althusser: Foundations of Critical Education12. The Three Critiques13. Foundations of Critical Education: Apple and Giroux’s Indecision 14. Roots of the Common Sense 15. Against Generality: Hirst 16. A Trotskyite Calling Stalin: Callinicos 17. The Eagle’s Apostasy: E. P. Thompson18. Ashes and Promiscuity: Willis and Connell19. Conclusion Part III: Structural Education: Towards an Althusserian Pedagogy20. Developments in Structure, Reproduction, and the Relations of Production21. The Structure of Race in Education: From Hall to Leonardo22. Structural Analysis of Girls’ Education: AnnMarie Wolpe 23. Gender, History, Duality: Barrett24. Marxist Feminist Education Research: Arnot, Deem, and Vallis 25. Ideology in Struggle: Advances in Interpellation ConclusionEpilogueReferencesIndex

In this significant contribution to critical educational studies, Backer rethinks common interpretations of Althusser as unable to recognize human agency and re-establishes Althusser's ideas in conversations about social and cultural reproduction. This is the most comprehensive and nuanced reading of Althusser's thinking about education available in the English language.