Category Archives: Publications

New article in Critical Education: Global Pedagogy and the Question of Palestine: A Dialogue

Global Pedagogy and the Question of Palestine: A Dialogue

Linda Herrera
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Michael A. Peters
Beijing Normal University / University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i4.187433 

Keywords: Palestine in Critical Pedagogy, Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, popular education, empowerment, grassroots, global citizenship, genocide, Anti-colonial pedagogy

Abstract

Global pedagogy refers to a broad, ethically grounded approach to education that extends beyond national boundaries and emphasizes the collective responsibility to teach and learn about interconnected global crises and historical injustices. The question of Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza serve as the “canary in the coalmine”. Its suppression is not an isolated phenomenon but a diagnostic for a wider authoritarian turn that seeks to foreclose the very possibility of critical, transnational solidarity. In this dialogue, Michel Peters, a philosopher of education, and Linda Herrera, a critical anthropologist of education in the Middle East, engage in a dialogue about how educators can keep critical thought and solidarity alive by partaking in practices that are resilient, resourceful, and relentlessly focused on building counter-publics. These requires embracing a “fugitive” pedagogy, curating and archiving counter-memories, and building transnational literacies of solidarity.

Author Biographies

Linda Herrera, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Linda Herrera is Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has researched, written about, and taught courses on education and power in the MENA region, qualitative research methods (with a focus on critical ethnography and oral history), international development policy, youth and generations, childhood in global context, the social effects of technological change, and critical democracy and citizenship education. Her books include, Education 2.0: Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt (OUP, 2025), Educating Egypt: Civic Values and Ideological Struggles (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-first Century (University of California Press, 2021), Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet (Verso, 2014), Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (Routledge, 2014), Being young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford University Press, 2010), and Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt (State University of New York Press, 2006).

Michael A. Peters, Beijing Normal University / University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Michael A. Peters is Distinguished Professor of Education at Beijing Normal University Faculty of Education PRC, and Emeritus Professor in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is the executive editor of the journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and founding editor of five international journals, Policy Futures in Education, E-Learning and Digital Media (SAGE), and Knowledge Cultures (Addleton), The Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy (Springer), Open Review of Education Research (T&F). His interests are in philosophy, education and social policy and he has written over eighty books, including most recently: Wittgenstein and Education: Pedagogical Investigations, (2017) with Jeff Stickney, The Global Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of Education (2015), Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy (2015) both with Tina Besley, Education Philosophy and Politics: Selected Works (2011); Education, Cognitive Capitalism and Digital Labour (2011), with Ergin Bulut; and Neoliberalism and After? Education, Social Policy and the Crisis of Capitalism (2011). He has acted as an advisor to governments and UNESCO on these and related matters in the USA, Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa and the European Union. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ in 2010, a Fellow in 2018, and awarded honorary doctorates by State University of New York (SUNY) in 2012 and University of Aalborg in 2015.

Workplace welcomes new Co-Editor Rhiannon M. Maton

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor is pleased to announce the addition of new co-editor. Rhiannon M. Maton, PhD is Associate Professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department at the State University of New York at Cortland. Dr. Maton will join Workplace as co-editor in January 2026.

Dr. Maton’s scholarship examines the intersections of teachers’ work, labor activism, and educational inequality across Canada and the U.S. Trained as a critical scholar of education with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Maton’s work brings together labor studies, educational leadership, and critical educational foundations to illuminate how educators understand, resist, and transform the social and material conditions of their work.

Her research has appeared in leading international journals including Teachers College Record; Curriculum Inquiry; History of Education Quarterly; Critical Studies in Education; Journal of Educational Change; and Gender, Work & Organization. She regularly publishes in Critical Education, Workplace, and Spectre journals, and strives to reach a practitioner and public audience through the creative use of multigenre communication methods. Across these publications and others, she advances critical and foresightful analyses of teachers’ work, educators’ grassroots organizing and unions, and the ongoing tensions between a common good ethic and the structural and institutional constraints of public schooling. Her scholarship consistently foregrounds the voices of educator practitioners, organizers, and activists, while drawing attention to their collective potency in challenging structural inequities and expanding the democratic possibilities of schooling. Maton’s research contributions have been recognized through several recent honors, including the Waring & DiNardo Outstanding Achievement in Research Award, which acknowledges her sustained impact on critical scholarship on teachers’ work and labor justice.

In addition to her research, Maton brings extensive editorial experience to her new role as Co-Editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor. She currently serves as Managing Editor of Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, where she supports feminist, anti-colonial, and gender justice-oriented scholarship through collaborative editorial processes. She views editorial work as a necessary space for elevating the intellectual strength and contributions of the radical left, and is committed to providing one-on-one mentorship and developmental writing support to new and emerging scholars—particularly those historically marginalized in academia.

Maton also plays a significant role in curating and advancing themed scholarship in the fields of labor organizing and teachers’ work. She is a co-editor of the Routledge series Critical Perspectives on Teaching and Teachers’ Work, alongside Denisha Jones and Arlo Kempf. This series brings together scholarship that examines teachers’ labor, professionalism, activism, and the broader social, political, and economic contexts that shape educators’ work globally. Through this role, Maton supports book projects that push the field in new theoretical and political directions, deepening scholarly engagement with issues of justice, labor, and educational transformation.

Her editorial experience also includes guest-editing four special issues of Critical Education with Erin Dyke and Lauren Ware Stark, which highlight interdisciplinary work on educator activism, transformative pedagogies, and the political economies of schooling. Most recently, she co-edited the Routledge Handbook on Teachers’ Work: International Perspectives on Research and Practice with Nina Bascia, a landmark volume mapping the global terrain of educators’ labor, professionalism, and collective action.

Across her research and editorial leadership, Maton remains committed to cultivating rigorous, accessible, and socially engaged scholarship. She looks forward to supporting authors in developing contributions that deepen critical conversations about K-12 and higher education, academic labor, and radical equity-oriented social transformation.

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Workplace published its first issue in1998.  Closely connected to activism emerging from the Graduate Student Caucus of the Modern Language Association, the journal’s founding editors were Marc Bousquet (then of the University of Louisville) and Kent Puckett (then of Columbia University, currently UC Berkeley). The journal was originally hosted by the University of Louisville and moved to the University of British Columbia in 2012 with the archive of past issues republished in 2014 on the Open Journal System platform and hosted by the UBC Library.

Previous editors of Workplace include Stephen Petrina (University of British Columbia), Chris Carter (University of Oklahoma), Gordon Lafer (University of Oregon), Gary Rhoades (University of Arizona), Bruce Simon (State University of New York at Fredonia), Bill Vaughn (Central Missouri State University) and
Katherine Wills (then of University of Louisville, currently Indiana University Purdue University Columbus).

Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor is a refereed, diamond open access journal published by the Institute for Critical Education Studies (ICES) and a collective of scholars in critical university studies, or critical higher education, promoting dignity and integrity in academic work. Contributions are aimed at higher education workplace scholar-activism and dialogue on all issues of academic labor.

Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship (now open access)

The article “Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship. An Analysis of the Spanish Curricular Change in Social Sciences” published in January 2025 in the European Journal of Education is now available under Open Access license.

The article examines the integration of citizenship education in Spain’s new social sciences curriculum, focusing on primary and secondary education. ​ It highlights the importance of fostering critical citizenship, which involves questioning societal norms, challenging injustices, and engaging in transformative social action. ​ The study uses the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) framework to analyze the curriculum, revealing a stronger emphasis on cognitive skills and content knowledge compared to attitudes and engagement. ​

Key findings include:

  1. Cognitive and Content Focus: The curriculum prioritizes cognitive domains (e.g., reasoning and application) and content domains (e.g., civic principles and roles) over attitudes and engagement. ​
  2. Inconsistencies in Curriculum Elements: While competencies emphasize citizenship commitment, evaluation criteria and basic knowledge lack coherence, limiting practical classroom implementation. ​
  3. Limited Focus on Engagement: Engagement-related dimensions, such as activism and social participation, are minimally addressed, distancing the curriculum from fostering active democratic citizenship. ​
  4. Imbalance in Basic Knowledge: Basic knowledge focuses solely on content, neglecting cognitive, attitudinal, and engagement aspects. ​

The study concludes that while the curriculum incorporates cognitive and content domains effectively, it falls short in promoting critical social action and engagement. ​ Future efforts should focus on aligning curriculum elements and fostering interdisciplinary approaches to empower students as active participants in democracy. ​ Researchers are encouraged to examine the practical implementation of these curricular changes to advance education for social justice. ​

Navarro Medina, E , Ross, E. W., Pérez-Rodríguez, N., & De Alba Fernandez, N. (2025). Towards an ideal model of education for critical citizenship. An analysis of the Spanish curricular change in social sciences. European Journal of Education, 60(1), e70010. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70010

Interview with Brazilian history education researchers

It has been a great honor and a learning experience for me to have connected with history education researchers in Brazil in recent years.

Prof. Dr. Luis F. Cerri (State University of Ponta Grossa, Brazil) contributed a chapter for the book Social Studies Education in Latin America: Critical Perspectives from the Global South , which I edited with Sebastián Plá .

Cerri’s chapter presents outcomes of an international project researching young peoples’ view of teaching and learning history, historical awareness and culture, political position and culture. The chapter presents comparative data on political position and views regarding history from young people across Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Subsequent to the book project, I had the opportunity to speak at the National Meeting of Researchers on the Teaching of History in Brazil and then last summer participated in a video interview with Dr. Cerri as well as Prof. Dr. Maria Lima (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul) and Prof. Dr. Juliana Andrade (Federal Rural University of Pernambuco).

The interview has just been published in Revista Docentes:

Ross, E. W., Cerri, L. F., Lima, M. A., & Andrade, J. (2025). Entrevista com o professor E. Wayne Ross. Revista Docentes, 10(35), 99-111. https://periodicos.seduc.ce.gov.br/revistadocentes/article/view/1474

Summary

E. Wayne Ross, together with Sebastián Plá, organized a collection on the teaching of Social Studies in Latin America, resulting from the understanding that the Global South is rapidly changing its role in the various spheres of contemporary life, and among them, the debate on the teaching and learning of subjects such as History. In 2022, he opened the proceedings of the National Meeting of Researchers on the Teaching of History held at UFRPE, reflecting on the impacts of neoliberal policies on the teaching of History and other human and social sciences. In this interview, conducted by videoconference on July 14, 2024, three leaders of the ABEH Associação Brasileira de Ensino de História spoke with the professor about their experiences of civic and professional resistance to the advances of militarism, the business perspective and reactionism in education, themes that are older there than here, which resulted in a fruitful debate.

Download PDF of article (in Portuguese).

Critical Education 16(1), Feb 2025: With special section on Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education

New issue of Critical Education published today. Critical Education, 16(1), includes a special section on “Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education” edited by Lana Parker (U of WIndsor).
 

Contesting Concepts, Imagining New Possibilities: David Graeber, Democracy, and Social Studies Curriculum
Peter M Nelson

 

Applying Critical Race Theory to Enhance the Racial Inclusivity of Teachers in Canada: A Review of the Literature and Facilitative Programming
Lucas Skelton

 

Critical Making Workshops: Sparking Meta-Discussions for Critical Thinking in Vocational Education
Regina Sipos, Alexander Kutschera, Janina Klose

 

Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education (Lana Parker, Section Editor)

 

A Window into Public Education: Documenting Neoliberal Capitalism’s Harms, Advocating for Alternatives
Lana Parker

 

Critical Geography and Teaching Against Neoliberal Racial Capitalism in New York City Elementary Schools
Debbie Sonu, Karen Zaino, Robert J. Helfenbein

 

The Allure of Professionalism: Teacher Candidate Subjectivity and Resistance in Neoliberal Times
Adam Kaszuba

 

University Bureaucracies as the Death of Play: The 1968 Strax Affair and the Arts of Discombobulation
Harrison Dressler, Noah Pleshet; Daniel Tubb

 

“I Need This Person’s Support to Have a Career”: The Material and Emotional Impacts of Neoliberalism on Trans Collegians’ Classroom Experiences at a Public University
Justin Gutzwa, Robert Marx

Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship

Thanks to Noelia Pérez‐Rodríguez for the opportunity to work with her and colleagues Elisa Navarro‐Medina and Nicolás De‐Alba‐Fernández – all in the Department of Didactics of Experimental and Social Sciences at University of Seville – on an article analyzing social science curriculum in Spain and working towards an ideal model of critical citizenship.

Abstract:

In this study, we analysed the presence of citizenship education in the new Spanish social sciences curriculum, focusing on both the primary and secondary education stages. The relevance of the study stems from the need to adapt to a new reality, in which it is crucial to develop in children and young people the skills to understand, interpret and make critical decisions. Considering the model outlined as ideal, and being aware of the difficulty involved in achieving it, we took as a reference a possible model to analyse the Spanish curriculum, the ICCS study framework. The research presented is based on a review of policy documents and analyses the curricula of compulsory education stages through a content analysis technique. The results show that in the Spanish curriculum, under the logic of the ICCS framework, cognitive skills and citizen content are more prevalent than those based on attitudes and engagement. This issue prompts us to reflect on the future changes that should be made to approach the model we consider relevant.

Citation:

Navarro Medina, E , Ross, E. W., Pérez-Rodríguez, N., & De Alba Fernandez, N. (2025). Towards an ideal model of education for critical citizenship. An analysis of the Spanish curricular change in social sciences. European Journal of Education, 60(1), e70010. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70010

 

Call for manuscript reviewers – Critical Education

Critical Education is a looking to expand its pool of manuscript reviewers.

If you are interested in contributing to the broad, multi-disciplinary field of critical education by participating in the peer review process, we encourage you to register with Critical Education as a reviewer.

We define critical education broadly as a field or approach that works theoretically and practically toward social change and addresses social injustices that result from various forms of oppression in globalized capitalist societies and under neoliberal governance.

We are looking for reviewers with expertise from across the broad range of education scholarship including but not limited to various: forms of research (e.g., empirical, theoretical, philosophical), contexts (e.g., early childhood, primary and secondary education, higher education, informal and popular education), conceptual orientations (e.g., critical pedagogy, anarchism, Marxism, critical postmodernism) and subfields (e.g., anti-racism, alternative education, critical and media literacy, disability studies, gender and sexuality, de/colonial and Indigenous education, leadership and policy studies, climate, outdoor, and place-based education, teacher education, solidarity and social movements, disciplinary subjects, etc.).

Critical Education uses a double-blind review process and follows the guidelines and practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

How do I sign up as a reviewer for Critical Education?

If you are already a registered user of the journal, sign in and from the drop-down menu below your username (top-right corner) choose View Profile > Role > check Reviewer box and list the key words that describe your areas of expertise. Before closing the profile window be sure to click the Save button on the bottom left of the page.

If you are not yet registered with Critical Education, use the Register link at the top of the journal home page and create an account. When creating your profile be sure to check the Reviewer role box and list the key words that describe your areas of expertise. Don’t forget to click the Save button.

Founded in 2010, Critical Education is an international, diamond open-access (no fees to read or publish), peer-reviewed journal, which publishes articles that critically examine contemporary education contexts and practices. Critical Education is published by the Institute for Critical Education Studies and hosted by The University of British Columbia Library. Critical Education is indexed in a number of scholarly databases including Scopus, EBSCO, DOAJ, and ERIC and is a member of the Free Journal Network. For more about Critical Education see: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/about