Equality, Education, and Human Rights in the United States

It is appropriate that Peter McLaren introduces this volume in his inimitably plaintive and frenetic fashion. Mike Cole’s new collection does not slow down from there. The chapters provide hard-hitting presentations of a given social injustice, each combining historical depth with conceptual heft. This volume is a necessary reminder of not just where we have been but also of where we are headed. Despite the assault on schools from myriad ideological sources -- neoliberalism, neoconservativism, neofascism, neonazism, white supremacy -- and the growing number of policy makers who embrace them, it is here that the authors in this volume, as critical pedagogues and resistance theorists, continue to seek hope.

– John E Petrovic, The University of Alabama, author of Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools.

Finding ourselves at a critical historical juncture with respect to questions of equality and human rights in education, this timely volume offers readers a powerful compilation of thought-provoking essays that speak to the very root of inequalities and offers valuable alternatives for genuinely enacting educational political projects that are in sync with our revolutionary dreams.

– Antonia Darder, Professor Emerita, Loyola Marymount University, USA

Mike Cole has edited an outstanding collection of essays from internationally known scholars who analyze the current political threats to democracy particularly from the right-wing. The issues of gender, disabilities, sexuality, ecology, class and others are clearly articulated within a political context. The essays boldly confront the significant dilemmas and conflicts that all of us face. The book is an indispensable and excellent read for all scholars and educators committed to social justice and equity in these nightmarish times. It is a must read.

– William M. Reynolds, Georgia Southern University, USA

This is an astonishing book! So strong yet subtle, so well written in easy-to-understand language clarifying sometimes complex concepts and analysis- and, overtly written by various chapter writers from the heart, from feeling, from cool outrage at the tragic inequalities within the USA and its education systems.This is a brilliant and moving and clearly Marxist critique that goes beyond critique, into resistance and `what we can do’. I am so full of admiration for this book- I wish all USA teachers in schools, community colleges and universities would read it. That would set the Marxist cat among the Capitalist pigeons!

– Dave Hill, Emeritus Research Professor of Education, Anglia Ruskin University, UK