Teachers as Political Actors: From Reproductive Theory to the Crisis of Schooling

Abstract

Critical theories of education, in focusing on the social reproductive function of school systems,often fail to emphasize the potential of teachers as agents of educational and social change. Dennis Carlson criticizes this tendency as he reviews and analyzes the treatment of teachers in influential forms of critical theory. In laying the basis for a view of teachers as an important force for transformative change in the schools, the author also reviews the historical development of teachers' professional and trade-union movements, locating them in a general analysis of U.S. work culture. He argues that since teachers are victims of the current system of public education, their collective interests as workers are more compatible with transformative than with merely reformist change.