Critical Theory and Classroom Talk

The theory of critique or 'critical theory' as developed by Habermas and applied to education by Young is far from being merely negative. It is quite explicitly an optimistic educational theory in which the hope for rational progress peace global understanding and ecological sanity is celebrated. Now that dogmatic Marxism has been swept into the rubbish bin of history it may be possible to engage in a less paranoid appraisal of the claims of critical theory - the most revisionist legacy of Marxism. A close look shows it to be eminently practical democratically-minded and responsible. In this book Young summarises critical learning theory shows its relationship to educational research particularly research on classroom communication and demonstrates its value for classroom teachers in a variety of 'real-life' classrooms. Far from being a utopian approach it comes to grips with the everyday problems of teachers in real imperfect underfunded schools. Motivation interest getting through the work achieving real understanding and teacher-planner relationships are fully discussed using classroom transcripts.