Reclaiming Education ─ Moving Beyond the Culture of Reform

This book is an appeal to those directly andindirectly involved in education reform to reconsider the very nature ofeducation as a process of transformation and not, as the neoliberal corporatemodel insists upon, as a “product.” By using Paulo Freire’s fundamentalprinciple of understanding “education as the?practice of freedom,” and expanding upon it with bell hooks’ ownspiritual understanding of that principle, this book offers readers theopportunity to rethink what education is, and what it is not.? Utilizing the work of diverse thinkers andcritics, the book lays out a criticism of neoliberalism’s profound influence oneducation reform and our culture generally. It reaffirms the political andethical import of education for individuals and for our nation as a whole.

Ron Scapp is Founding Director of the Graduate Program inUrban and Multicultural Education at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, USA,where he is also Professor of Humanities and Teacher Education. He is authorand editor of numerous books on education, politics and culture. He is Fellowat the National Education Policy Center and former President of the NationalAssociation for Ethnic Studies.