Donald Trump's ascendancy in American politics has made visible a plague of deep-seated civic illiteracy, a corrupt political system, and a contempt for reason that has been decades in the making; it also points to the withering of civic attachments, the undoing of civic culture, the decline of public life, and the erosion of any sense of shared…

Henry Giroux begins this discussion by observing that he thinks there is a lot to be learned about what happens to higher education when authoritarians win elections and a liberal democracy morphs into something else. Giroux believes that under the regime of Donald Trump, higher education is under siege, and its stated purpose to produce the…

This article describes America's descent into madness under the regime of neoliberalism that has emerged in the United States since the late 1970s. In part, this is due to the emergence of a public pedagogy produced by the corporate-owned media that now saturates Americans with a market-driven value system that undermines those formative…

A new form of bare pedagogy is emerging in higher education focused on market-driven competitiveness and even militaristic goal-setting, while critical pedagogy, with its emphasis on the hard work of critical analysis, moral judgments, and social responsibility (critical pedagogy that goes to the very heart of what it means to address real…

This article argues that under neoliberal casino capitalism there has been a wholesale attack not only on the social state but also on those public spheres that enable the formative cultures necessary to produce critical agents, engaged subjects, and the literacies necessary to make power and authority accountable. In this instance, the struggle…

This article provides a case study of how a business culture imposes modes of educational leadership on a public school system in New York City that has little if any concerns for empowering children, teachers, and the communities. The article provides a counter-narrative that serves to dispel the notion that the culture of educational empowerment…

Anti-intellectualism and political illiteracy are sweeping across the American media and cultural landscape, giving rise to discourses that are unabashedly nativist, racist, and reactionary. Populist sentiments drive the rabid individualism and anti-government rhetoric of right-wing groups such as the Tea Party movement. Underlying these…

Public and higher education have fallen prey to forces of commercialization, privatization, and market considerations that undermine civic and critical learning while devaluing young people as a referent for a democratic and just future. This article criticizes this position and makes a case for reclaiming such vital institutions as fundamental to…

American society exudes both a deep-rooted hostility and a chilling indifference toward youth, reinforcing the dismal conditions that increasingly characterize young people's existence. Children and teens are losing hope for the future. An education professor (and former basketball scholarship student) provides enlightening insights from his own…

Addresses the corrosive effects of corporate culture on the academy and society, arguing that neoliberal discourses of privatization and commercialization reduce citizenship to self-interest. Maintains that corporate culture ignores social injustices while emphasizing unfettered market forces, threatening understanding of democracy and the meaning…

Invaded by candy manufacturers, sneaker companies, and fast food chains, schools increasingly promote a commercial culture. As commercial culture replaces public culture, the language of the market substitutes for the language of democracy. Educators, families, and communities must reinvigorate the language, social relations, and politics of…

This monograph argues that corporate culture, power, and politics are dominating the discourse on the role of higher education and public education. Evidence is offered of the change in the role of institution president to that of a corporate manager, of the increasing vocationalization of higher education, and of an increasingly pragmatic view of…

A recent national conference demonstrated that the Reagan administration's educational reform proposals conceive a narrow economic role for education, deliberately ignoring questions of social inequality. Yet critics have failed to question this hidden agenda. Future debate must acknowledge the link between education and democracy. (MCG)

Argues that the issue of curriculum and educational leadership must be redefined, in part, as a crisis of purpose and citizenship. There is a need to strengthen the relationships between learning and empowerment and between democracy and schooling. (five references) (MLF)

Deplores the current drive toward cost efficiency, restructuring, and vocationalization of colleges of education. Cultural studies offer an opportunity to redefine educational theory and practice and educate teachers and administrators to play a vital role in renewing civic life. Concerned with empowerment and the democratic process, cultural…