BOOK REVIEW Bakhshov: Against Capitalist Education

Authors

  • Andrew L. Hostetler Vanderbilt University

Keywords:

Capitalism, Educational alternatives, progressive education, alternative education, difference, educational theory, educational philosophy, home education, education policy

Abstract

This book is not your typical rant against capitalism. Nadim Bakhshov carefully crafts a conversation between two men to demonstrate his argument. An argument birthed from critique but the author clearly offers a conceptual solution.

Scholars like Richard Brosio (1994) and Peter McLaren (2005) have documented the effects of capitalism on schooling, warned of the pitfalls, and offered insights into ways forward. The critiques of capitalism’s influence on education have a history. Alan Griffin (1940) warned of the dangers of conflating a democratic value of freedom as responsible communal living with a capitalist vision of freedom as unregulated living. This work appropriately has focused on making the argument that capitalism is having a negative influence on education and it documents why this is so. This is seemingly to convince a broad audience that what they think is not a problem, in fact is very problematic...

References

Bakhshov, N. (2015). Against capitalist education: What is education for? Alresford, UK: Zero Books.

Brosio, R. (1994). A radical democratic critique of capitalist education. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Griffin, A. F. (1940). Freedom American style. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.

McLaren, P. (2005). Capitalists and conquerors: A critical pedagogy against empire. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Downloads

Published

2016-01-31

Issue

Section

Book Reviews/Review Essays