Michael W. AppleProfessor of Curriculum & InstructionUniversity of Wisconsin, MadisonSondra Ehley, Curatorial Project 124-Sept-08

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

Michael W. Apple

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."

Heart of Apple’s Work

Examining the cultural, political, and economic contexts of education

His mission is driven by moral convictions: "The theories, policies, and practices involved in education are not as much technical as

They are inherently ethical and political, and they ultimately involve...intensely personal choices about 'the common good'"

Apple - a Systematic Review Of the "moral" crisis of the U.S. economy and of its implications for schooling and the schools

The "moral" crisis consists of -

an increasing gap between rich and poor

between "people of color" and Euro- Americans

a growing level of child poverty ("one out of every four children under the age of six" lives in poverty)

the growing rate of incarceration for Black and Latino men

and/or the growth of low-paying, repetitive work.

Quick Overview

1. Apple's book was begun as a text, an "outline" as he says, for the John Dewey Lecture in 1992

2. As the conservative restoration movement gains power in the educational arena,

a. public schooling itself has come under attack

3. He analyzes current educational debates and critiques the ‘Rightist’ proposals for change

The ‘Political Right’

The conservative movement is one of the strongest and most transformative of the century and one that Apple feels -

Needs to be examined with care and diligence, by taking seriously its motives and reasons

He shows, that at the bottom of the conflict is about democracy

The place of education in democratic development

on

Book Overview

Apple’s book critically investigates conservative tendencies in education

With specific reference to the most recent and very determined attempts by -

Neoconservative and neoliberal movements of the Political "Right" in the United States to -

Restructure education and to remove all those themes and concerns from the educational agenda

Introduced by the movements of the "Cultural Left" in the U.S., by feminism and antiracism, the gay movement, etc.

Two (2) Most Important Lessons for Educators

1. Not to underestimate the force and coherence of the new conservative attack

a. on liberal and progressivist educational agendas

2. That it matters more to come to terms with this movement as a whole & its power of attraction

rather than to receive detailed practical instruction on how to respond to it

Book Overview Chapter 1

1. Is an introduction to cultural politics and education, and addresses hegemonic cultures

Chapter 2 1. Examines the most significant proposals for

educational “reform” that have come from the neoliberal and neoconservative alliance

a. Major focus is on proposals for a national curriculum and a program of national testing

2. He suggests that one of the perverse effects of a national curriculum will be to legitimize inequality

Book Overview

Chapter 3

1. Analyzes conservative ideological positions and how they threaten schools

2. Demonstrates how the bureaucratic structures and responses of schools sometimes

a. create the very conditions under which right-wing movements grow and thrive

Book Overview In Chapter 4

Apple argues that the Political "Right" wants to ignore these problems by launching an all-out assault on public schooling by:

1. Concentrating on "dropouts" from the school-system and youth at risk

2. Substituting a system which functions like a market open to consumer choices through voucher plans & tax- credits

3. Continuously monitoring teacher and student competencies and learning outcomes

4. Centralizing even more the control over teaching & curricula

Book Overview

Apple completes this picture by drawing attention to:

1. Efforts to reform the curriculum in a strongly neo- conservative/neoliberal direction

a. By stressing family, free enterprise, patriotism, Christianity, etc.,

b. By "making the needs of business and industry into the goals of education"

Book Overview Apple believes

1.Overall, public schools will be seen as responsible for the economic crisis,

a. But also, as the solution assuming they can be redesigned

2.That most economic and social problems are not due to what does or may go wrong in or with the schools

a. Nor can the schools make up for the failure of society to provide meaningful jobs, decent health-care and housing, etc.

In Summary

1. Apple’s argument implies a defense of the public school in the U.S.

2. Also, I believe that Apple's book is applicable under present conditions and helps us to maintain a good perspective on education

as well as human and social development, which was first articulated by John Dewey

and has since then become an American tradition.

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?“

a. Schools were seen as extensions of home & traditional morality

b. Parents entrusted children to public schools-locally controlled & reflected Biblical & parental values

c. New ‘Right’ argues parental control of education is Biblical ‘in God’s plan’

d. Primary responsibility for educating their young lies in the home

Apple’s Book & Six (6) Questions to be Answered

5. “Does a National curriculum make sense?”

a. Not only those who are identified with the “Right” argue for a national curriculum

b. Others who are identified with a more liberal agenda have attempted to make a case

c. A national curriculum coupled with rigorous national standards and a system of testing that is “modernization” of the curriculum and the efficient “production” of better “human capital”

Apple’s Book & Six (6) Questions to be Answered

d. Represents a nostalgic yearning for a romanticized past tied to a program of market-driven policies

e. National system of standards, testing, and curricula-while perhaps internally consistent

f. An ideal compromise within the rightist coalition

g. Proponents of a national curriculum may see it as a means to

i. create social cohesion and to give all of us the capacity to improve our schools

ii. by measuring them against “objective” criteria, Apples states the effects will be the opposite

Apple’s Book & Six (6) Questions to be Answered

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?”

In Essence

At Bottom, the conflict is about Democracy and the Place of Education in Democratic Development.