Review by Choice Review
This sharply written book, edited by Blake (Open University, England), argues that a discernible postmodern perspective, most generally associated with Derrida, Foucault, Lacan, and Lyotard, remains relevant to the examination of contemporary educational matters. The authors' primary project is to repudiate misreadings of postmodernism, especially the relativist label often misapplied to these chief exponents. They treat a variety of problematized educational activities and discourses, including the teaching of literacy, the legitimation of educational experts, and the managerial ethos that pervades contemporary schooling. In so doing, they are particularly trenchant in articulating the theoretical legacy of critiques on structuralism and foundationalism. Critical readers might reasonably charge the authors with erecting an intellectual straw man of modernism so as to champion the ideas of postmodern authorities who they frequently (and paradoxically) treat much too deferentially. However, it is difficult to imagine a more lucid analysis, and this collaborative effort may well serve as a primer for advanced undergraduate students looking to venture into this terrain. The concluding "Prospect" anticipates questions likely to be raised by such students, and it will likely compel further discussion. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy of education courses. T. R. Glander; Nazareth College of Rochester
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
