CEPA Symposium - Althusser and Education

In this online symposium, Dr David Backer (West Chester University) discusses his book Althusser and Education (Bloomsbury 2022) with Emile Bojesen (University of Winchester), Samuel Mercer (Liverpool Hope) and Olga Ververi (Liverpool Hope). In Althusser and Education, Dr Backer re- visits Louis Althusser’s theory of education to develop a critical reading of contemporary discourses within education studies, and gestures towards the production of an Althusserian pedagogy. This new pedagogic approach is one that privileges the school as both an educational and ideological apparatus within a particular social and material context: a context which structures the very pedagogic practices and strategies available within that institution. His book has been described as "the most comprehensive and nuanced reading of Althusser's thinking about education available in the English language". Isaac Gottesman (Connecticut College).

David I. Backer is an Associate Professor of Education Policy at West Chester University. Most recently his research and organizing apply a Marxist lens to the problem of school finance in a time of climate change. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America on this topic.