Aronowitz, Stanlezy & Henry A. Giroux. Postmodern Education:
Politics , Culture and Social Criticism, Minneapolis, Minnesota:
University of Minnesota Press, 1991, $20.50 paperback.

The current fascination with discourse theory has left many
advocates of social change apologizing for "Grand Narratives" while
the American Right has appropriated much of their radical critique
of public education. Stanley Aronowitz and Henry Giroux's
Postmodern Education takes aim at both the morally indignant
"Crisis of Excellence" that is dictating educational policy and
also at the potential intellectual opposition to this onslaught.
They use the language of postmodernism to give a new shine to
critical pedagogy in an attempt to reintroduce these timely
concerns to an audience that has dismissed anything remotely
"Marxist" at a stroke in order to frolic in its simulacra.

Giroux was a secondary school teacher and Aronowitz once
worked in a steel mill: they know that most students and workers
cannot afford to celebrate the death of history. There is no Panic
Schoolmarm here, no spectacle, no obscure jargon let loose to play
in the footnotes. Yet, even as they "refuse to reduce social
structures to discourse" (p. 160) in their examination of the
transcendental notions that inform much of postmodernist discourse,
Aronowitz and Giroux create an excellent comprehensive introduction
to postmodernism.

Before examining Postmodern Education, readers versed in
cultural theory might benefit by consulting a renowned educational
journal (Kappan is popular among school teachers). Since Humanism
is still in vogue with "Progressive" educators, Aronowitz and
Giroux are cautious in their exploration of postmodernism. The
valorization of the everyday, for instance, is emphasized not to
encourage individual sel f -discovery but instead to define and
legitimate the specific struggles of marginalized students. A
parallel criticism of prevalent theoretical inclinations posits
that "the political economy of the sign does not displace political
economy" (p. 116); turning postmodernism on itself, the authors
alternately praise or condemn this ouroborous in their quest to
empower teachers and students for the creation of "democratic
public spheres" (p. 89).

The book begins by contrasting progressive and postmodern
("postmodern" as critical theory in this instance) approaches to
social change by analyzing Bennet's drug and education offensives.
"Textual Authority, Culture and the Politics of Literacy"
politicizes the theories of Bloom and Hirsch in a critical
investigation of knowledge and power. "Postmodernism and the
Discourse of Educational Criticism" provides an excellent
introduction to postmodernism, noting in particular how Rorty's and
Baudri 1 lard ' s directions hinder the creation of a critical
pedagogy .

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Aware that curriculum "functions to name and privilege
particular histories and experiences" (p. 96), Giroux continues in
the fourth chapter to examine the role of teachers as
transformative public intellectuals. Foucault's notion of counter-
memory is used in "Border Pedagogy in the Age of Postmodernism" to
explore how students can understand and struggle for the
possibility of social transformation.

Cultural Studies is criticized for its ahistorical turn in
chapter six while "Working Class Displacements and Postmodern
Reflections" examines the myth of the disappearance of the working
class. The conclusion's warning that "an apolitical postmodernism
articulates perhaps unwittingly with a right-wing political agenda"
(p. 190) and plea to go beyond "a politics of discourse and
difference" (p. 192) exemplify the authors' struggle with the
liberating and reactionary potential of postmodernism.

It is unfortunate that this significant analysis of
contemporary education must manipulate -- and in turn become a
critique of -- postmodernism so that critical thought and social
responsibility somehow become "modernist ideals" (p. 57) and
"postmodernism points to solidarity, community, and compassion as
essential aspects of how we develop and understand the capacities
we have for experiencing the world" (p. 117). Nevertheless,
refusing to abandon history, Aronowitz and Giroux broach their
emancipatory "Postmodernism" not only as an alternative to the
ahistorical carnival of "The Postmodernism", but also, above all,
as a strategy to establish a critical theory and practice of
education.

Reviewed by:
George A. Fogarasi
Faculty of Education
University of Ottawa

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