Marx, Capital, and Education ― Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Becoming

With the contradictions of capitalism heightening and intensifying, and with new social movements spreading across the globe, revolutionary transformation is once again on the agenda. For radicals, the most pressing question is: How can we transform ourselves and our world into something else, something just? In Marx, Capital, and Education, Curry Stephenson Malott and Derek R. Ford develop a «critical pedagogy of becoming» that is concerned with precisely this question. The authors boldly investigate the movement toward communism and the essential role that critical pedagogy can play in this transition. Performing a novel and educational reading of Karl Marx and radical theorists and activists, Malott and Ford present a critical understanding of the past and present, of the underlying logics and (often opaque) forces that determine the world-historical moment. Yet Malott and Ford are equally concerned with examining the specific ways in which we can teach, learn, study, and struggle ourselves beyond capitalism; how we can ultimately overthrow the existing order and institute a new mode of production and set of social relations. This incisive and timely book, penned by two militant teachers, organizers, and academics, reconfigures pedagogy and politics. Educators and organizers alike will find that it provides new ammunition in the struggle for the world that we deserve.

Curry Stephenson Malott (PhD in curriculum and instruction, New Mexico State University) is Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations in the Department of Professional and Secondary Education at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Malott is a regular contributor to the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.
Derek R. Ford’s (PhD candidate in cultural foundations of education, Syracuse University) professional writing has appeared in Educational Philosophy and Theory; Critical Studies in Education; Policy Futures in Education; and Studies in Philosophy and Education. He currently teaches in the Social Justice Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.