Systems of Reason and the Politics of Schooling: School Reform and Sciences of Education in the Tradition of Thomas S. Popkewitz

The 1980s were an important decade for educational inquiry. It was the moment of the linguistic turn, with its emphasis on the role of language as a constructor of reality, a structuring agent for institutions such as schools, and a medium for translating knowledge into elements of power for processes of social regulation. Drawing on the work and insights of educational researcher Thomas S. Popkewitz, this book shows how the linguistic turn provided an alternative to both mainline educational research grounded in the ideals of political liberalism and the effort of neo-Marxists to challenge liberal thinking in favor of a scholarship based on class conflict and economic determinism.