For thirty years Henry Giroux has been theorizing pedagogy as a political, moral and cultural practice, drawing upon critical discourses that extend from John Dewey and Zygmunt Bauman to Paulo Freire. This impassioned book opens by discussing the crucial role of pedagogy in schools before extending the notion to the educational force of the wider culture.

Giroux focuses on five crucial elements associated with critical pedagogy. First, he presents an overview of the term as it applies to schooling and to larger cultural spheres. Second, he analyses the increasingly empirical orientation of teaching, focusing on the culture of positivism. Third, he examines some of the major economic, social, and political focus undermining the promise of democratic schooling in both public and higher education. Giroux then outlines increasing attempts by both right wing and liberal interests to reduce schooling to training and students merely to customers. Finally the book focuses on the legacy of Paulo Freire and issues a fundamental challenge to educators, public intellectuals, and others who believe in the promise of radical democracy.