After postmodernism : education, politics, and identity / edited by Richard Smith and Philip Wexler.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The chapters in this book originated in an invited seminar at the Griffith University Gold Coast (Australia) campus on the occasion of a visit by Philip Wexler in December 1993. The seminar explored ways and means of transcending a postmodernist analysis of education. Although the examples are predominantly Australian, the issues are international. The major themes of the book include the theoretical implications of a refusal to abandon universals and the justification for intervening in educational policy; the efficacy of different kinds of interventions and what a theoretically driven action agenda might be; and dealing with the new range of inequalities which are consequences of postmodern transformations at both the institutional and existential levels. Following the prologue by Richard Smith, Part 1, entitled "Theory of Education," is comprised of the following four chapters: (1) "Liberalism, Postmodernism, Critical Theory and Politics" (Robert Young); (2) "Fading Poststructuralisms: Post-Ford, Posthuman, Posteducation?" (John Knight); (3) "Having a Postmodernist Turn or Postmodernist 'Angst': A Disorder Experienced by an Author Who Is Not Yet Dead or Even Close to It" (Jane Kenway); and (4) "After Postmodernism: A New Age Social Theory in Education" (Philip Wexler). Chapters in the second part, "Pedagogy," include: (5) "Getting Our Hands Dirty: Provisional Politics in Postmodern Conditions" (Allan Luke); (6) "Foucault's Poststructuralism and Observational Education Research: A Study of Power Relations" (Jennifer M. Gore); and (7) "Keeping an Untidy House: A Disjointed Paper About Academic Space, Work and Bodies" (Wendy Morgan and Erica McWilliam). The chapters in part 3, "Identity," include: (8) "Stories In and Out of Class: Knowledge, Identity and Schooling" (Lindsay Fitzclarence, Bill Green, and Chris Bigum); (9) "Corporatism, Self and Identity Within Moral Orders: Prestructuralist Reconsiderations of a Poststructuralist Paradox" (Robert Funnell); and (10) "Voicing the 'Other,' Speaking for the 'Self,' Disrupting the Metanarratives of Educational Theorizing with Poststructural Feminisms" (Parlo Singh). Part 4, entitled "Politics," is comprised of the following three chapters: (11) "Educational Intellectuals and Corporate Politics" (James G. Ladwig); (12) "Academic Work Intensification: Beyond Postmodernism" (Richard Smith and Judyth Sachs); and (13) "Epilogue: From the Inside Out" (Philip Wexler). References accompany each chapter. An index is included. (LMI).