The Retreat of Marxism and Socialist Feminism: Postmodern and Poststructural Theories in Education

Abstract

Anyon uses her personal history as a contributor to the resurgence of progressive scholarship in the late 1970s and early 1980s to critique recent work in education. She argues that Marxist thought has failed to develop and has been largely abandoned by critical scholars, many of whom now seek empowerment for teachers and students through postmodern and poststructural ideas. She undertakes an analysis of these new theories, and of their instantiation in educational scholarship that claims to use them to foster empowerment and change. Anyon assesses the political possibilities and consequences of these theories and the practices they entail. The goal of the analysis is to identify theory that will be useful in struggles for a more equitable society.