Rethinking Education Through Critical Psychology

Since the very first ‘co-operative’ school opened its doors in 2008, the complicated relations between ‘co-operative’ approaches to schooling and democratic subjectivity remain unexplored. This ground breaking book considers the role of ‘voice’ in co-operative schooling and its place in radical research, offering an original, critical analysis of an alternative model of ‘co-operative’ schooling set within the context of the contemporary public education sector in England. Drawing on post structural theory and critical ethnographic research, the author explores how this model might offer new ways of thinking about what education is for and who stands to benefit or lose when schools adopt co-operative ways of working together across the structures of governance, pedagogy and curriculum. The book considers how participatory ways of working in education might inform a more critical educational psychology that takes engendering equality and collective well-being as an alternative starting point to measuring individual achievement and cognitive development. This text will appeal to advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners, particularly in the field of psychology, education, politics and social research, with an interest in developing a critical appreciation of inequalities in education and in reimagining the possibilities for change.

Since the very first ‘co-operative’ school opened its doors in 2008, the complicated relations between ‘co-operative’ approaches to schooling and democratic subjectivity remain unexplored. This ground breaking book considers the role of ‘voice’ in co-operative schooling and its place in radical research, offering an original, critical analysis of an alternative model of ‘co-operative’ schooling set within the context of the contemporary public education sector in England. Drawing on post structural theory and critical ethnographic research, the author explores how this model might offer new ways of thinking about what education is for and who stands to benefit or lose when schools adopt co-operative ways of working together across the structures of governance, pedagogy and curriculum. The book considers how participatory ways of working in education might inform a more critical educational psychology that takes engendering equality and collective well-being as an alternative starting point to measuring individual achievement and cognitive development. This text will appeal to advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners, particularly in the field of psychology, education, politics and social research, with an interest in developing a critical appreciation of inequalities in education and in reimagining the possibilities for change.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The fourth edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology, sponsored by Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, addresses new developments in educational psychology theory and research methods while honoring the legacy of the field’s past. Comprising 31 chapters written by a diverse group of recognized Educational Psychologist and/or Learning and Motivational Scientist (EDP/LMS) scholars, this volume provides integrative reviews and critical syntheses of inquiry across a variety of foundational and new areas. Key constructs like motivation, development, beliefs, literacy, and emotions are given substantive updates, while entire new chapters touch on trends that have materialized since the publication of the third edition, such as inquiry world views, Critical Race Theory, cognitive neuroscience, and emerging technologies in education. Throughout this new edition, chapter authors coalesce on issues of social justice, situated approaches to inquiry, and progressive inquiry methods. The Handbook of Educational Psychology, Fourth Edition, will be an important reference volume for current and future EDP/LMS scholars, broadly conceived, as well as for teacher educators, practicing teachers, policy makers, and the academic libraries serving these audiences. It is also appropriate for graduate-level courses in educational psychology, learning and motivational sciences, and research methods in education and psychology.

The first textbook of its kind, Critical Educational Psychology is a forward-thinking approach to educational psychology that uses critical perspectives to challenge current ways of thinking and improve practice.

This essential book questions the psychological construct of Internet Addiction by contextualizing it within the digital technological era. It proposes a critical psychology that investigates user subjectivity as a function of capitalism and imperialism, arguing against punitive models of digital excesses and critiquing the political economy of the Internet affecting all users. Friedman explores the limitations of individual-centered remediations exemplified in the psychology of internet addiction. Furthermore, Friedman outlines the self-creative actions of social media users, and the data processing that exploits them to urge psychologists to politicize rather than pathologize the effects of excessive net use. The book develops a notion of capitalist imperialism of the social web and studies this using the radical methods of philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. By synthesizing perspectives on digital life from sociology, economics, digital media theory, and technology studies for psychologists, this book will be of interest to academics and students in these areas, as well as psychologists and counselors interested in addressing Internet Addiction as a collective, societal ill.

Psychology’s contribution to education has produced a persuasive and burgeoning literature willing to measure (e.g. intelligence quotients), categorise (e.g. learning and/or behavioural diffi culties) and pathologise (e.g. psychiatric disorders) students across learning contexts. Practices like these pervade relationships existing between psychology and education because they share in common certain views of people and the worlds in which they learn. There is however increased acknowledgement that contemporary practice demands alternate ways of working. As learning communities and educators endeavour to make a difference in peoples’ lives, they are critically questioning how their use of psychology in education constitutes future possibilities for personhood and psychosocial action. In this book, a group of respected international scholars examine controversies presently facing the enduring relationship between psychology and education. The book will appeal to readers who are interested in the innovative development and application of psychological theories and practices in/to education. The book will be of interest to transnational audiences and is accessible to scholars and students in disciplines including psychology, education, sociology, social work, youth studies, public and allied health. The volume includes contributions from: Tom Billington, Christopher Boyle, Lise Bird Claiborne, Tim Corcoran, Greg Goodman, Jack Martin, Athanasios Marvakis and Ioanna Petritsi, Jace Pillay, Isaac Prilleltensky, Anna Stetsenko, Jeff Sugarman and Stephen Vassallo with a Foreword by Ben Bradley. Tim Corcoran is Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Critical Psychology at The Victoria Institute, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has extensive experience in educational psychology both as a school psychologist and researcher/academic. His work has involved teaching, research and professional practice in Australia, the UK, Singapore and Iraq.

This crucial new work draws on empirical findings from rural North India in relation to madness and subjectivity, revealing the different structures of subjectivity underlying the narratives of schizophrenia, spirits, ghosts, and deities. Unravelling the loose ends of madness, the author explores the cultural differences in understanding and experiencing madness to examine how modern insanity is treated as a clinical disorder, but historically it represents how we form knowledge and understand self-knowledge. The author begins by theoretically investigating how the schizophrenic personifies the fractures in modern Western thought to explain why, despite decades of intense contention, the category of schizophrenia is still alive. She then examines the narratives of people in the Himalayan Mountains of rural India to reveal the discursive conditions that animate their stories around what psychology calls psychosis, critiquing the monoculturalism in trauma theory and challenging the ongoing march of the Global Mental Health Movement in the Global South. Examining what a study of madness reveals about two different cultures, and their ways of thinking and being, this is fascinating reading for students interested in mental health, critical psychology, and Indian culture.