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Peter McLaren (born 1948) is a Canadian scholar who serves as a Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies Attallah College of Educational Studies,
Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...
, where he is Co-Director of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice. He is also Emeritus Professor of Urban Education,
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, and Emeritus Professor of Educational Leadership,
Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...
of Ohio. He is also the Honorary Director of the Center for Critical Studies in Education at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. According to Stanford University's database, Peter McLaren belongs to the top 2% world’s most influential scientists. McLaren is the author and editor of over forty-five books and hundreds of scholarly articles and chapters. His writings have been translated into over 20 languages. He is married to Yan Wang from Northeast China. They currently live in
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. He has a son and daughter from previous marriages. McLaren is known as one of the leading architects of
critical pedagogy Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement that developed and applied concepts from critical theory and related traditions to the field of education and the study of culture. It insists that issues of social justice and de ...
and for his scholarly writings on
critical literacy Critical literacy is the ability to find embedded discrimination in media. This is done by analyzing the messages promoting prejudiced power relationships found naturally in media and written material that go unnoticed otherwise by reading beyond ...
, the
sociology of education The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of ...
,
cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
,
critical ethnography Critical ethnography applies a critical theory based approach to ethnography. It focuses on the implicit values expressed within ethnographic studies and, therefore, on the unacknowledged biases that may result from such implicit values.Soyini Madi ...
, and
Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...
.
Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...
, a founding figure of critical pedagogy, stated: "Peter McLaren is one among the many outstanding 'intellectual relatives' I 'discovered' and by whom I in turn was 'discovered.' I read Peter McLaren long before I ever came to know him personally. ... Once I finished reading the first texts by McLaren that were made available to me, I was almost certain that we belonged to an identical 'intellectual family.'" During a keynote address at Chapman University on October 25, 2014, Nita Freire, eminent educational scholar and widow of Paulo Freire, remarked: "It is ... a huge thrill for me to see Peter McLaren and Donaldo Macedo, who ever since through discussions and dialogue became old friends of work and friendship, partners of ideological and theoretical ideas of Paulo. They along with
Henry Giroux Henry Armand Giroux (born 1943) is an American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth s ...
formulated the critical pedagogy as we know of today." McLaren has worked with
Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes
, in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
; the landless workers' movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST, in
Brasil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area an ...
, the
Zapatistas Zapatista(s) may refer to: * Liberation Army of the South The Liberation Army of the South ( es, Ejército Libertador del Sur, ELS) was a guerrilla force led for most of its existence by Emiliano Zapata that took part in the Mexican Revolut ...
in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and members of the Bolivarian revolution in
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.; and with the left education workers union in Turkey where amid a demonstration he was teargassed and hurled to the ground by a police's riot shield. McLaren is a faculty member at the Institute of Critical Pedagogy at The Global Center for Advanced Studies and lectures worldwide on education's politics. In Finland, he gave an Opening Lecture at Paulo Freire Center–Finland on November 20, 2007. La Escuela Normal Superior de Neiva in Colombia has named one of its buildings after Peter McLaren. , McLaren is ranked in the top 15 percent of all social science and humanities scholars in the world, based on his D-index (Discipline
H-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...
); he is ranked 217 in the United States and 428 in the world.


Life

Peter McLaren was born in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, on August 2, 1948, and raised in Toronto and also, for four years, in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
,
Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
. He is the only child of Frances Teresa Bernadette McLaren and Lawrence Omand McLaren, from Canada. McLaren's early family life was working-class until his father, a
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
war veteran with the Royal Canadian Engineers, returned from battle in Europe and began work as a television salesman, eventually rising to the rank of General Manager of Phillips Electronics, Eastern Canada. McLaren's mother was a homemaker before working as a telephone operator. McLaren used to read voraciously in literature, philosophy, poetry, social theory, and literary and art criticism, was making creative 35 mm movies at 16, and dreamt of being an artist or film director. McLaren's father had one sister, Bonnie, who married Terry Goddard, a Second World War Royal Airforce pilot credited with helping sink the German battleship Bismark. McLaren's mother had four sisters and two brothers. McLaren compensated for being an only child by spending time with his many cousins and engaging in creative writing. McLaren's first writing award was during middle school, where he won top writing honours by producing a science fiction story. At 19, McLaren hitchhiked throughout the US, met with Black Panthers in Oakland, lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he participated in anti–Vietnam War protests, met with Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg and began writing poetry and short stories. His first commercial publication was about his great Aunt, Irma Wright, who won the world's fastest typist competition in 1928. He earned a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in
English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
at
University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
in 1973 (specializing in
Elizabethan drama English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...
), attended Toronto Teachers College, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Education at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
's Faculty of Education, a Masters of Education at
Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bear ...
's College of Education, and a Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University of Toronto (where he worked with the late Richard Courtney, a leading international authority in children's drama). McLaren taught elementary and middle school from 1974-1979. Most of that time was spent teaching in Canada's largest public housing complex in Toronto's Jane-Finch Corridor. ''Cries from the Corridor'', McLaren's book about his teaching experiences, made the Canadian bestseller list and was one of top ten bestselling books in Canada in 1980 (''
Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
'' magazine, the ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
''), initiating a country-wide debate on inner-city schools. (Later, McLaren would harshly criticize this book and go on to transform it into the highly acclaimed pedagogical text, ''Life in Schools''.) After earning his doctorate in 1983, he served as Special Lecturer in Education at Brock University, where, as a one-year sabbatical replacement, he specialized in inner-city education and language arts. After the Dean did not follow through on his promised extension of McLaren's contract, McLaren decided to pursue an academic appointment in the United States. However, he remains on good terms with the faculty at Brock University, with whom he remains in a relationship of solidarity and friendship. McLaren left Canada in 1985 to teach at
Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...
's School of Education and Allied Professions, where he spent eight years working with colleague
Henry Giroux Henry Armand Giroux (born 1943) is an American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth s ...
during a time when the
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
known as
critical pedagogy Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement that developed and applied concepts from critical theory and related traditions to the field of education and the study of culture. It insists that issues of social justice and de ...
was gaining traction in North American schools of education. McLaren also served as Director of the Center for Education and Cultural Studies and held the title of Renowned Scholar-in-Residence at Miami University before being recruited by the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies,
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, in 1993. In 2013, McLaren was appointed Distinguished Fellow in Critical Studies at
Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...
,
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. In 2019, The Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity, affiliated with the top-ranked law school in Australia, published an extensive interview with McLaren. And the same year the OC Weekly featured commentary on two articles featured by McLaren on the fight against fascism in the United States, and McLaren published a graphic novel of his life with an artist Miles Wilson.


Career


First phase, 1980–1993

The theoretical orientations of the first ten years of McLaren's research and writing can be traced to his early undergraduate work in Elizabethan drama, theater arts, and from there to his graduate studies in symbolic anthropology, critical ethnography and social semiotics. As a young man, McLaren had always admired the life and work of William Morris author, poet, artist and craftsman, printer and calligrapher, formidable socialist and activist, businessman and private individual. At the time that he enrolled in doctoral studies at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (Institut d'Etudes Pedagogiques de L'Ontario), Victor Turner, the world-renowned symbolic anthropologist, was conducting path breaking transdisciplinary work at the University of Virginia, bringing dramaturgical theory and anthropology into close collaboration, particularly as this applied to the study of ritual. McLaren soon became a scholar of Turner's work. After auditing a course at the Toronto Semiotics Institute taught by philosopher
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
, and another by Umberto Eco, McLaren began to develop a transdisciplinary approach to the study of ritual. He found a rich transdisciplinary milieu in which to conduct his studies at Massey College, University of Toronto. Modeled after Balliol College, Oxford University, England, Massey College facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration among high achieving graduate students from various departments on campus. Looking back at his educational experiences at Massey, it is not surprising that the work of performance theorists, political economists, anthropologists, dramaturgical theorists, literary critics, and symbolic interactionists informed the theoretical basis of his first major scholarly publication, Schooling as a Ritual Performance Towards a Political Economy of Educational Symbols and Gestures (first edition, Routledge, 1986; revised editions, 1994, 1997) which was based on his PhD dissertation. McLaren's early work from 1984 to 1994 spanned diverse intellectual and empirical terrains. He remained steadfast in his interest in the contemporary themes of the Frankfurt School: social psychology in the context of a lack of revolutionary social protest in Europe and the United States; a critique of positivism and science; developing a
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
of art and representation; an interrogation of the mass media and mass culture; investigating the production of desire and identity; and the globalization of
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and forms of integration in neoliberal societies. In other words, when viewed against the major themes of the Frankfurt School, there was a fundamental coherence to his work as a whole. Further, each of McLaren's scholarly projects attempted to explore the construction of identity in school contexts within a neo-liberal society. This meant engaging in numerous critical projects: exploring the debilitating effects of logical positivism in the social sciences and the assault on critical theory and critical ethnography; exploring the increasing colonization of the lifeworld by the mass media and developing a critical pedagogy of media literacy and a political aesthetics of pedagogical experience; analyzing the decline of critical rationality in postmodern societies and the development of critical literacies; advancing in specific pedagogical terms the struggle to redefine the meaning of liberation and empowerment in an age of despair and cynicism; investigating the politics of post-liberal societies with specific reference to the practices of
cultural racism Cultural racism, sometimes called neo-racism, new racism, postmodern racism, or differentialist racism, is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This inclu ...
and sexism, and developing an analysis of the production, distribution, consumption, and exchange of cultural objects in schools and larger social sites with an emphasis on the social construction of subjectivity. In this early period, McLaren's research emphasized the development of a critical emancipatory consciousness, self-conscious reason, and the centrality of nonidentity thinking towards a non essentialist view of revolutionary consciousness grounded in a theory of intersubjective understanding through language. Practically, his work attempted to create an oppositional cultural politics that enabled teachers and students to analyze how the dominant and negotiated meanings that inform classroom texts were produced and to uncover the ideological and political meanings that circulated within them. McLaren attempted through critical reading strategies to illuminate the dominant pedagogical codes of teachers as well as the normative codes within classroom cultures of students. His purpose was to create alternative readings as well as new pedagogical practices. In this sense, critical pedagogy, as McLaren was formulating it, attempted to re engage a social world that operates under the assumption of its collective autonomy and so remains resistant to human intervention. In his early work, McLaren engaged four main strands in
educational theory Education sciences or education theory (traditionally often called ''pedagogy'') seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education policy and practice. Education sciences include many topics, such as pedagogy, andragogy, curriculum, learning, ...
and studies: critical ethnography, critical pedagogy, curriculum studies and critical multiculturalism.


Second phase, 1994–present

McLaren work during the past several decades is not so much a break from his early work, as an extension of it. A discernible shift occurred in the sense that he now focuses more on a critique of political economy. But his early work also included a critique of capitalism, except during that time McLaren operated from primarily a
Weberian Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas prof ...
understanding of class and was concerned at that time with the politics of consumption and lifestyle/identity. McLaren's new turn saw him focus on the social relations of production and its relation to the production of subjectivity and protagonist agency. Between 1994 up to the present, McLaren's work is less directed at the classroom per se, and more focused on issues such as a critique of political economy, cultural contact and racial identity, anti-racist/multicultural education, the politics of white supremacy, resistance and popular culture; the formation of subjectivity, the coloniality of power and decolonial education; revolutionary critical pedagogy informed by a
Marxist humanist Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...
analysis and liberation theology. During this time McLaren began spending time in Latin America – working with Chavistas in Venezuela and with labor and union leaders in Mexico and Colombia and becoming more interested in
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
critique of political economy. McLaren came to believe that postmodern theory could be quite a reactionary approach in so far as it failed to challenge with the verve and sustained effort that is demanded of the times the social relations of capitalist production and reproduction. While McLaren adopted the term, ''critical postmodernism'', or ''resistance postmodernism'', to describe his work up until the late 1990s, he recognized that he needed to engage the work of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and Marxist thinkers. The more McLaren began engaging in the work of Marx, and meeting social activists driven by Marxist
anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
projects throughout the Americas, he no longer believed that the work on "radical democracy" convincingly demonstrated that it was superior to the Marxist problematic. It appeared to McLaren that, in the main, such work had despairingly capitulated to the inevitability of the rule of capital and the regime of the commodity. That work, along with much of the work in post-colonialist criticism, appeared to McLaren as too detached from historical specificities and basic determinations. McLaren believed that Marxist critique more adequately addressed the differentiated totalities of contemporary society and their historical imbrications in the world system of global capitalism. Rather than employ the term ''critical pedagogy'', McLaren now uses the term that the British educator Paula Allman has christened ''revolutionary critical pedagogy''. McLaren describes his current work as Marxist humanist, a term developed by Raya Dunayevskaya, who once served as Trotsky's secretary in Mexico and who developed the tradition of Marxist humanism in the US. McLaren's work constitutes counterpoint to the way social justice is used in progressive education by inviting students to examine critically the epistemological and axiological dimensions of democracy in the light of a Marxist critique of political economy and the coloniality of power (a term developed by Anibal Quijano). McLaren's work today comprises poetry, reflections on his activist work in Venezuela, Mexico, and other countries, contributions to critical theory, and Marxist analysis as applied to current educational policy and reform initiatives. Although McLaren's theoretical work has developed in these stages, the preface to the most recent compilation of his oeuvre argues that these phases aren't distinguished by theoretical breaks but by political "maturation." This latest interpretation argues that there are two continuities throughout his phases. The first is his effort to create new temporalities, spatialities, subjectivities, and modes of production that don't entail exploitation and oppression. The second is that this pursuit has always been "rooted not in the transcendence of the ideal, but in the immanence of corporeal reality."


McLaren's critical pedagogy

McLaren's work has broken new ground in education. He is considered one of the architects of critical pedagogy, having been influenced early in his career by
Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...
and Henry Giroux. He also has been credited with laying the groundwork for performance studies in education with the publication of his book, Schooling as a Ritual Performance. The Peter McLaren Upstander Lecture was recently announced as part of the Annual International Critical Research in Applied Theater Symposium, Auckland, New Zealand. The lecture is to be presented each year by a graduate student in education from the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland. Currently McLaren is known as one of the leading exponents of revolutionary critical pedagogy, an approach to everyday life influenced by Marxist humanist philosophy, also known as a "philosophy of praxis". McLaren's work is controversial for its uncompromising politics of class struggle. McLaren is also a gifted orator and social activist, and his academic writing has been both praised and criticized for its unique blend of poetry and literary tropes and cutting-edge theoretical analysis. At least one documentary is in the planning about McLaren's life. McLaren approaches critical pedagogy as a praxiological effort to develop a politics of everyday life in a number of ways. First, it situates its critical analyses within the realms of popular culture. Secondly, it pays close theoretical attention to the ways in which everyday discourses and social practices both constitute and reinforce relations of power as well as serve as sites for struggle, resistance, and transformation. Thirdly, critical pedagogy as developed by McLaren attempts to seize opportunities to make links between new social movements and the networks of power associated with "school life". It does this by attempting to link the micropolitical (everyday lives of teachers and students) with the macropolitical (larger economic, cultural, social, and institutional structures). Critical pedagogy, as McLaren develops it, seeks to analyze the possibilities for the resistance and transformation of social life, both individual and collective, personal and macropolitical. It engages in such an analysis by attempting to understand how wider relations of power are played out in the agential spaces of classroom and community life but also by attempting to investigate how wider structures of mediation at the level of the economy are able to "take root" in the everyday lives of students and teachers who operate at the level of common sense actions. This means constantly reflecting on the cultural construction of the identities of teachers, students, researchers and also connecting such critical reflection to a wider terrain of political action and class struggle. McLaren takes critical pedagogy beyond a discursive politics that sees politics as merely a text to be deconstructed and interpreted. Instead, McLaren approaches cultural politics as a terrain that operationalizes the textuality of political life by linking textuality to materiality. That is, McLaren seeks to make connections between the texts that we read (cultural artifacts) and those that read us (the realm of language and discursive structures in general) in light of current modes and social relations of production and the political consequences that these connections bring about in our pedagogies, curricula, and policies. Since 1994, McLaren revised and extended some of his earlier insights in Schooling as a Ritual Performance, and Life in Schools, and other works, through an engagement with Marx and leading Marxist philosophers and theorists. While anti-capitalist struggle and Marxist analysis has an indistinct and relatively undigested place in the field of educational theory, there is some movement towards Marx in the social sciences here in North America. Marx is being revisited by social scientists of all disciplinary shapes and sizes – even, and perhaps most especially and urgently today, when capitalism is in a state of severe crisis. While hardly on their way to becoming entrenched and pervasive, Marx's ideas are taking their significance most strikingly from the particular and varied contexts in which his ideas are being engaged. Thank to McLaren's work, Marx's ideas are gaining traction in education. In McLaren's post-1994 phase, Marxist theory has provided McLaren with an approach to praxis that is fundamentally necessary to better contextualize changes in the socio-political and economic sphere as it relates to education. Through McLaren's current reengagement with Marx, and the tradition of historical materialism, McLaren supports the work of colleagues whose work is paving the way for new generations of educationalists to encounter Marx. Marx is being reevaluated on numerous fronts today: sociology, political science, philosophy, economics, ethics, history, and the like.


Bibliography

McLaren is the author, co-author, editor, and co-editor of approximately forty books and monographs. Several hundred of his articles, chapters, interviews, reviews, commentaries, and columns have appeared in dozens of scholarly journals and professional magazines worldwide. His most recent books include: * McLaren, P. (2020). ''He walks Among Us: Christian Fascism Ushering in the End of Days''. DIO Press. * McLaren, P. & Jandric, P. (2020). ''Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology''. Bloomsbury Academic. * McLaren, P. & Wilson, M. (2019). ''Breaking Free: The Life and Times of Peter McLaren, Radical Educator''. Myers Education Press. * McLaren, P. (2016). ''Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution''. Peter Lang. * McLaren, P., Macrine, S., and Hill, D, (Eds). (2010). ''Revolutionizing Pedagogy: Educating for Social Justice Within and Beyond Global Neo-liberalism''. Palgrave Macmillan. * Nocella, A., Best, S., & McLaren, P. (Eds.) (2010). ''Academic Repression: Reflections from the Academic Industrial Complex''. AK Press. * Martin, G., Houston, D., McLaren, P. & Suoranta, J. (Eds.) (2010) ''Havoc of Capitalism. Educating for Social and Environmental Justice''. Sense Publishers. * Sandlin, J.A. & McLaren, P. (Eds.). (2009). ''Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and Learning in the Shadow of the "Shopocalypse"''. Routledge. * McLaren, P. & Jaramillo, N. (2007). ''Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire''. Sense Publishers. * McLaren, P. (2006). ''Rage + Hope''. Peter Lang. * McLaren, P. (2005). ''Capitalists and Conquerors''. Rowman and Littlefield. * McLaren, P. & Farahmandpur,'R. (2005) ''Teaching Against Global Capitalism and the New Imperialism''. Rowman and Littlefield. * McLaren, P. (2005). ''Red Seminars: Radical Excursions into Educational Theory, Cultural Politics, and Pedagogy''. Hampton Press. * McLaren, P., D. Hill, M. Cole, & G. Rikowski (2002). ''Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory''. Lexington Books. * McLaren, P. (2000). ''Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution''. Rowman and Littlefield. * McLaren, P. (1997). ''Revolutionary Multiculturalism: Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium''. Westview Press. * McLaren, P., H. Giroux, C. Lankshear & M. Peters (1997). ''Counternarratives''. Routledge. * McLaren, P. (1995). ''Critical Pedagogy and Predatory Culture''. Routledge. He is also author of ''Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education'' (
Allyn & Bacon Allyn & Bacon, founded in 1868, is a higher education textbook publisher in the areas of education, humanities and social sciences. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, the world's largest education publishing and technology company which is par ...
) which is in its fifth edition (2006). ''Life in Schools'' has been named one of the 12 most significant writings worldwide in the field of educational theory, policy and practice] by an international panel of experts assembled by the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences; other writers named by the panel include
Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...
,
Ivan Illich Ivan Dominic Illich ( , ; 4 September 1926 – 2 December 2002) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and social critic. His 1971 book '' Deschooling Society'' criticises modern society's institutional approach to edu ...
, and
Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...
. In 2011, Instituto Peter McLaren was established in Ensenada, Mexico. McLaren's work has been the subject of three recent books: ''Teaching Peter McLaren: Paths of Dissent'', edited by Marc Pruyn and Luis M. Huerta-Charles (Peter Lang, 2005) ranslated into Spanish as ''De La Pedagogia Critica a la pedagogia de la Revolucion: Ensayos Para Comprender a Peter McLaren'', Mexico City, Siglo Veintiuno Editores Peter McLaren, ''Education, and the Struggle for Liberation'', edited by Mustafa Eryaman (Hampton Press, 2008), and ''Crisis of Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren'', edited by Charles Reitz (Lexington Books, 2013). McLaren has also recently debuted as a poet with his poem "The Despoiling of the American Mind" in ''MRZine''. His works have been praised, among others, by
Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...
and Paula Allman. Žižek comments McLaren's book ''Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution'' as follows: "
Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
is usually perceived as a Romantic model whom we should admire, while pursuing our daily business as usual – the most perverse defense against what Che stood for. What McLaren's fascinating book demonstrates is that, on the contrary, Che is a model for our times, a figure we should imitate in our struggle against neoliberal global capitalism." Allman notes that the book is "brilliant blend of passion, commitment, and critical analysis and insight. ... It is also one of the most important books on critical education, and thus also education and social justice, to have been written in the twentieth century."


Recent developments


Honorary doctorates

Peter McLaren was awarded an honorary doctorate by the
University of Lapland The University of Lapland is located in the city of Rovaniemi, Finland. It was founded in 1979. While UiT The Arctic University of Norway is the northernmost university in the world, the University of Lapland is the most northern university in t ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, in 2004, by
Universidad del Salvador The Universidad del Salvador (USAL) is a Jesuit university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to its campus in downtown Buenos Aires, it has instructional and research facilities in Pilar, San Miguel, Bahía Blanca, and in the provinces of ...
,
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, in 2010, by the Universidad Nacional de Chilecito in La Rioja, Argentina, and the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Educación Inclusiva (CELEI), Chile, in 2021. He also received the Amigo Honorifica de la Comunidad Universitaria de esta Institucion by La Universidad Pedagogica Nacional, Unidad 141, Guadalajara, Mexico.


La Fundacion McLaren de Pedagogía Critica

In 2005, a group of scholars and activists in Northern Mexico established La Fundacion McLaren de Pedagogía Critica to develop a knowledge of McLaren's work throughout Mexico and to promote projects in critical pedagogy and popular education. On September 15, 2006 the Catedra Peter McLaren was inaugurated at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela.


See also

* *
Critical consciousness Critical consciousness, conscientization, or in Portuguese, is a popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire, grounded in post-Marxist critical theory. Critical consciousness focuses ...
*
Ecopedagogy The ecopedagogy movement is an outgrowth of the theory and practice of critical pedagogy, a body of educational praxis influenced by the philosopher and educator Paulo Freire. Ecopedagogy's mission is to develop a robust appreciation for the collec ...
*
Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have b ...
*
Liberation psychology Liberation psychology or liberation social psychology is an approach to psychology that aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities by conceptually and practically addressing the oppressive sociopolitical str ...
*
Post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...
*
Praxis intervention Praxis intervention is a form of participatory action research that emphasizes working on the praxis potential, or phronesis, of its participants. This contrasts with other forms of participatory action research, which emphasize the collective mo ...
*
Praxis school The Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical cycle, whose members were influenced by Western Marxism. It originated in Zagreb in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s. Prominent school's theorists include Gajo Petrović and Milan Ka ...
* Queer pedagogy * ''
Radical Teacher ''Radical Teacher'' is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the theory and practice of education. The journal examines the root causes of inequality and promotes progressive social change in the field ...
'' *
Structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
*
List of University of Waterloo people The University of Waterloo, located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is a comprehensive public university that was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles. It has grown into an institution of more than 42,000 students, faculty, and ...


References


Footnotes


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

Peter McLaren's webpages and CV * https://web.archive.org/web/20100808152859/http://www.petermclaren.org/
Peter McLaren's testimony in the "Cold War Truth Commission" on Sunday, March 21, 2021
Peter McLaren's text
Toward a Red Theory of Love, Sexuality and the Family
by Peter McLaren and Lilia D. Monzo, ''Iberoamérica Social'', December 2014 Issue
Brothers and Sisters in the Struggle to Rebuild the World
by Peter McLaren, ''Iberoamérica Social'', November 2014 Issue
Austerity/Immiseration Capitalism: What Can We Learn From Venezuelan Socialism?
by Peter McLaren and Mike Cole, ''Iberoamérica Social'', May 2014 Issue
An American Scene
by Peter McLaren, ''Iberoamérica Social'', December 2013 Issue
Living in the Nightwatchman State: A Riposte to Despair
by Peter McLaren, ''Iberoamérica Social'', September 2013 Issue
Rage and Hope
by Peter McLaren, ''Iberoamérica Social'', August 2013 Issue * ''Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Politics of Hope: Reclaiming Critical Pedagogy''
pdf
* ''George Bush, Apocalypse Sometime Soon, and the American Imperium''
pdf
* ''The Dialectics of Terrorism: A Marxist Response to September 11''
part 1

part 2


by Peter McLaren, ''Monthly Review'', July–August 2006 Issue
Peter McLaren Responds to Bill Ayers: Bad Faith Solidarity
January 22, 2007
Peter McLaren on Paulo Freire in Jacobin magazine
Texts on Peter McLaren

by Samuel Day Fassbinder, ''Monthly Review'', April 6, 2006

by Michael Viola, ''Monthly Review'', November 16, 2006
Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire
by Samantha Cohen, ''The Humanities Review'', Fall 2007 issue
Education Professor Peter McLaren Honored with Chair and Foundation
by the ''University of California Newsroom'' Interviews
From liberation to salvation: Revolutionary critical pedagogy meets liberation theology
by Petar Jandrić, ''Policy Futures in Education'', 15(5): 620-652, 2017
Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy is Made by Walking: In a World Where Many Worlds Coexist
by Petar Jandrić, ''Policy Futures in Education'', 12(6): 805-831, 2014
Critical Pedagogy Against Capitalist Schooling: Towards a Socialist Alternative

A Radical Educator's Views on Media

Capitalism, Critical Pedagogy, and Urban Science Education

Educating for Social Justice and Liberation

Peter McLaren and the Pedagogy of Liberation
by Ravi Kumar, ''Radical Notes'', February 19, 2009

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090830070906/http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_3801.shtml Towards a Critical Revolutionary PedagogyDecember 9, 2003
Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy and the Struggle against Capital Today
by Derek R. Ford
George Yancy interviewed McLaren on his mentor, Paulo Freire, September 27, 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaren, Peter 1948 births Living people Brock University alumni Canadian activists Canadian educational theorists Canadian expatriate academics in the United States Canadian people of Scottish descent Marxist humanists Marxist theorists Marxist writers Miami University faculty Writers from Toronto UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies faculty University of Toronto alumni University of Waterloo alumni Critical pedagogy