McLaren, Peter. (2006). Rage and Hope: Interviews with Peter McLaren on War, Imperialism, and Critical Pedagogy. Reviewed by Samuel Day Fassbinder, Pomona, California

McLaren, Peter. (2006). Rage and Hope: Interviews with Peter McLaren on War, Imperialism, and Critical Pedagogy. New York: Peter Lang. 397 pp. ISBN 0-8204-7917-9 Reviewed by Samuel Day Fassbinder Pomona, California July 9, 2006 Peter McLaren is Professor in The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA and author and editor of over 40 books. Rage and Hope, McLaren’s most recent contribution, is a collection of interviews he has given in the last few years. It is best seen as a missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle, which when all the pieces are assembled reveal a picture of “revolutionary critical pedagogy.” This theory, revolutionary critical pedagogy, offers a concept of teaching and learning that sees “schools as legitimate sites for democratic advancement.” Revolutionary critical pedagogy starts with the teachings of Paulo Freire. Freire’s (1970/1998) book Pedagogy of the Oppressed must be seen as one of the more basic pieces in the jigsaw puzzle. Freire described a “dialogic,” transformative form of education that offers learners the possibility of democratic participation in a world that intends them to be objects for exploitation. Freire, for his part, taught adults how to read and write; some of the practices of his profession are detailed in Education for Critical Consciousness (1973). McLaren started out as a teacher of middle-school children, but then later became highly critical of the context in which these children, especially children from the lower economic classes, were educated. His classic (1989) study of 5th grade, Life In Schools, and his ethnography of Catholic middle school, Schooling as a Ritual Performance (1986), display that concern. His recent work, including Capitalists and Conquerors (2005), Red Seminars (2005), and Teaching Against Global Capitalism and the New Imperialism (2005), reads thematically quite differently. Nowadays, McLaren writes about theory. The text under review here, for example, does not “play along” with those who already have an agenda set and are just wondering what to do in class on Monday. Reading McLaren is itself an education in philosophy, in sociology, in political economy, and perhaps also in pedagogy. There is, in these essays, a tidy dose of suggestion as to what the teacher of “revolutionary critical pedagogy” ought to believe. Essays such as “Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy at Ground Zero” (pp. 257-279 of Teaching) and “God’s Cowboy Warrior: Christianity, Globalization, and the False Prophets of Imperialism” (pp. 261-333 of Capitalists and Conquerors) suggest ways in which teachers can help students understand current events. Essays such as “Epistemologies of Whiteness” (pp. 209-225 of Red Seminars) and “Revolutionary Ecologies: Ecosocialism and Critical Pedagogy” (pp. 166-185 of Capitalists and Conquerors) suggest ideological themes to be taken up by a revolutionary critical pedagogy. McLaren’s idea of technique is discussed at length in an essay in Capitalists and Conquerors: Revolutionary critical pedagogy begins with a three-pronged approach: First, students engage in a pedagogy of demystification centering around a semiotics of recognition, where dominant sign systems are recognized and denaturalized, where common sense is historicized, and where signification is understood as a political practice that refracts rather than reflects reality, where cultural formations are understood in relation to the larger social factory of the school and the global universe of capital. This is followed by a pedagogy of opposition, where students engage in analyzing various political systems, ideologies, and histories, and eventually students begin to develop their own political positions. Inspired by a sense of ever-imminent hope, students take up a pedagogy of revolution, where deliberative practices for transforming the social universe of capital are developed and put into practice. (p. 59) I highlight this particular statement because, like other similar statements in the book under review, it helps the reader of McLaren’s prose organize his or her thoughts on any of a diverse number of topics in these books in terms of the question, “Why am I reading this, within a book that is ostensibly about pedagogy”? One reads McLaren’s recent work to absorb a synthesis of radical theories animated by a dynamic writing style. At times the mix can get a little heady, and I would not blame readers if at points they failed to “find themselves” as professionals within McLaren’s myriad expositions. Thus, I intend this review to center the potential reader. Rage and Hope supplements the larger statements of the 2005 books (and, indeed, earlier volumes) with interviews. Just as after the allotted lecture time a question-and-answer session is given, Rage and Hope follows the previous books. There are sixteen interviews in this book; I will not cover them all here. Rather, I will discuss a few highlights, specifically two points at which McLaren gets closest to specifying “revolutionary critical pedagogy” as an educational movement with a distinct identity, apart from discussions of political economy, commentaries on the news, and critiques of other philosophies. All of those topics are indeed quite relevant and meaningful, because they explain why “revolutionary critical pedagogy” is so important today. It is, however, revolutionary critical pedagogy that brings them all together. Michael Pozo’s interview with McLaren, at the beginning of the book, is especially meaningful in this regard. Here, McLaren shows how his form of pedagogy and political activism are connected: My particular task is to transform teacher and student practice into a far-reaching political praxis linked to social movements to contribute to creating a multi-racial, gender-balanced, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist movement that is internationalist in scope. (p. 17) In a later portion of the interview, McLaren’s explanation of strategy is presented in specifics: As a critical educator, I follow Glenn Rikowski’s work and encourage students to ask themselves the following question: What is the maximum damage we can do to the rule of capital, to the dominance of capital’s value form? The answer to this is not simple. It might include organizing against sweatshops; working with aggrieved communities in the area of media literacy; assisting grassroots activist organizations in developing pedagogical projects directed at unpacking the links among capitalism, imperialism, and war; joining forces with anti-globalization groups; increasing public awareness about the dangers of educational privatization; fighting racism and sexism in the workplace; and the list goes on. (p. 25) So this is McLaren’s idea of the students’ role: there is a movement to end capitalism, but within this framework everyone will be doing different things in different geographical and ideological landscapes. Marcia Moraes’ interview with McLaren is also very important insofar as in it McLaren lays out his philosophy in a clear, concise, and meaningful way. Part of the interview elucidates his teaching principles: I would argue that revolutionary critical pedagogy is not born in the crucible of the imagination as much as it is given birth in its own practice. That is, revolutionary critical education is decidedly more praxiological than prescored. The path is made by walking, as it were. Revolutionary educators need to challenge the notion implicit in mainstream education that ideas related to citizenship have to travel through predestined contours of the mind, falling into step with the cadences of common sense. There is nothing common about common sense. ... educators need to be more than the voice of autobiography; they need to create the context for dialogue with the “other” so that the “other” may assume the right to be heard. But critical pedagogy is also about making links with real, concrete human subjects struggling within and against capital and against the structures of oppression that are intimately linked to capital: racism, sexism, patriarchy, and imperialism. (p. 117) This, in short, is how McLaren ties together the need for the distinction and individuality of each student with the general landscape of capitalism as it defines his Marxist and humanist pedagogy. In summary, I do not know if I would recommend Rage and Hope as a book to introduce new readers to revolutionary critical pedagogy. Moreover, the author did not think this particular text was for neophytes; his introduction suggests that one may wish to read Rage and Hope alongside his other books. Perhaps Capitalists and Conquerors would be the most succinct introduction to McLaren’s recent work. If one’s interest is in McLaren’s earlier work, however, one may wish to start with Schooling as a Ritual Performance. McLaren’s prosaic strategy, his content, biases, and style, will doubtless define his audience. I hope this review will help the reader decide if she is ready for a writer of McLaren’s distinction. References Freire, Paulo. (1970/1998). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum. Freire, Paulo. (1973). Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Continuum Publishing Company. McLaren, Peter. (1986). Schooling as a ritual performance: Towards a political economy of educational symbols and gestures. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. McLaren, Peter. (1989) Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. New York: Longman. McLaren, Peter. (2005). Capitalists and Conquerors: A Critical Pedagogy against Empire. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. McLaren, Peter. (2005). Red Seminars: Radical Excursions Into Educational Theory, Cultural Politics and Pedagogy. Cresskill NJ: Hampton Press. McLaren, Peter. (2005). Capitalists and Conquerors: A Critical Pedagogy Against Empire. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. McLaren, Peter & Farahmandpur, Ramin. (2004). Teaching Against Global Capitalism and The New Imperialism: A Critical Pedagogy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. About the Reviewer Samuel Day Fassbinder, PhD, was most recently Adjunct Professor of English and Speech Communication at Riverside Community College. His weblog can be read at http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com. He works with Food Not Bombs in Pomona, California. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.