The challenge of critical education

Abstract

One of the major theoretical currents sweeping across the educational world today is" critical education". Paul Hirst, best known for an educational philosophy located in the analytic tradition, has recently suggested that in the consideration of formal schooling, "Perhaps the most promising discussions ... are to be found quite outside the particular context of educational theory, in the contemporary study of critical theory" (1983, pg. 27). This is an important and significant shift on the part of a highly influential thinker whose original position differed so fundamentally from the method and epistemology of critical theory and education, and in itself signals future directions for educational theory and practice.