Getting Smart: Feminist Research

The ways in which knowledge relates to power have been much discussed in radical education theory. New emphasis on the role of gender and the growing debate about subjectivity have deepened the discussion, while making it more complex. In Getting Smart , Patti Lather makes use of her unique integration of feminism and postmodernism into critical education theory to address some of the most vital questions facing education researchers and teachers.

had heard Lather speak at a conference and decided that Getting Smart would be a good place to start getting better acquainted with postmodernism. I'd found too much of the academic writing associated with postmodern theory to be dense and stylized. I kept wanting to grab the writer and ask, "What is it you're trying to SAY?"

While Getting Smart isn't exactly easy reading, it is more accessible that a lot of "postie" material. Lather positions herself theoretically as a poststructuralist/feminist/ neoMarxist and explains how that all works. I'd spent too much time with critical theory to be quite ready to give up emancipatory missions in education and was happy to find critical theory doesn't hold a monopoly on them. Oh, and my advisor's adviser Michael Apple of the University of Wisconsin wrote the books introduction.

I'm having a heavy duty writing semester here which is likely to be reflected in My Books. I'll turn back into my novel-guzzling self in May with some not-serious-at-all beach reading....