Michael W. Apple Professor of Curriculum & Instruction University of Wisconsin, Madison Sondra Ehley, Curatorial Project 1 24-Sept-08

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. Aristotle 

 A quote from Michael Apple's "Ideology and Curriculum" (1990) provides a glimpse of his professional and personal mission:

Michael W. Apple  "...I am even more convinced now, that until we take seriously the extent to which education is caught up in the real world of shifting and unequal power relations, we will be living in a world divorced from reality."

Apple’s Book & Six (6) Questions to be Answered 1. “Whose Knowledge is Being Taught & Why? 2. “What is the Relationship Between Culture & Power in Education?” 3. “Who Benefits From this Relationship”?

Apple’s Book & Six (6) Questions to be Answered 4. "How does the ‘Right’ get formed?“ 5. “Does a National curriculum make sense?” 6. “Where should those of us who count ourselves a part of the long progressive tradition in education stand in relationship to the call for a national curriculum?”

Cultural, Political, & Economics  Theories, Policies, & Practices in education are not technical  Ethical and Political  Personal Choices  “The Common Good”

John Dewey’s 1992 Lecture  Themes to Connect Theory with Practice  Progressive Educators with Community  Global with the Local  Linking with Larger Society & Economy

Apple’s Book Examines  Conservative Restoration Movement  Public Schooling Under Attach  Current Educational Debates  Rightist Proposals for Change  Weighty Theoretical Matters  Empirical Materials

Apple’s Book Investigates in Chapter 2  Conservative Tendencies in Education  Neoconservative & Neoliberal Movements  Political “Right” in U.S.  Restructure Education  Remove Themes of “Cultural Left”

Major Focus in Chapter 3  Proposals for Education “Reform”  Proposals for National Curriculum/Testing  Perverse Effects will Legitimize Inequality  Analyzes Conservative Ideological Positions  Bureaucratic Structures & Responses  Create Conditions for Right-Wing Movements

Fundamental Force  Neoconservative & Neoliberal Push  Old & Deep-Seated Convictions  Defending Hierarchy of Social Class in U.S.  Class-Hierarch Rests on Merit & Education  Conservatives Recognized Sounder Side of Society

Apple’s Systematic Review in Chap.4  “Moral” Crisis of U.S. Economy  Increasing Gap Between Rich & Poor  Between “people of color” & Euro-American  Rate of Incarceration for Black & Latino men  Growing Level of Child Poverty  U.S. Behind Other Major Industrialized Countries

Social Construction  ‘Dropping Out’ as a Problem within the Real Economy  Students’ Account of Educational Experiences  Encounters with Realities of Free-Market Economy  Political “Right” Ignoring Problems  Concentrating on “Dropouts” & Risk”

Centralizing Themes  Even More Control over Teaching & Curricula  Reform Curriculum Neoconservative/Neoliberal Direction  Stressing Family, Free Enterprise, Patriotism & Christianity  Making Needs of Business & Industry Into the Goals of Education  Public Schools Seen as Responsible for Economic Crisis or Solution

Conservative Movement  Economic & Social Problems are not due to failure of Schools  Schools cannot make up for Failure of Society Provide Meaningful Jobs, Health Care, & Housing  Conservative Movement most Strongest & Transformative of the Century  Needs to be Examined With Care  Motives & Reasons

In Essence  At Bottom the conflict is about Democracy and the Place of Education in Democratic Development.

In Conclusion Apple Believes  Problems of Learning in Contemporary Schools in the U.S.  Really “About Competing Social Visions“  Greatest failing of the Neoliberal/ Neoconservative Reform- Movement  Refuses to Situate its Curricular and other Reform Proposals  In the larger context of “Democratic Education and a more Democratic Society"  ‘Apple discusses how John Dewey still had a conception of such a context and redesigned vocational education on this basis’