CHAPTER 1: Critical Theory in Education

What is Critical Theory? The question is difficult to answer definitively, as the field of critical theory includes disparate ideas and theorists, each of which have contributed to an evolving historical dialogue. Perhaps Horkheimer’s words, quoted in the epigraph to this chapter, provide the best starting place for understanding critical theory. Certainly all critical theorists are concerned with issues of inequality and oppression, and beyond theorizing oppression, critical theorists struggle toward social change and the creation of a more fair and just world (or what they deem “praxis”). This generality, however, offers only a vague outline of a theoretical body that is historically important, highly varied in implications and methods, and continually evolving. In this chapter, we provide a historical overview and delineate key ideas and approaches that, together, constitute the central elements of critical theory.