ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss the critical perspective of Michel Foucault’s thinking in the field of education, focusing on his original approach to dealing with the concepts of subject, power, and discourse. The theoretical discussion will be complemented by examples gathered from recent research, conducted in Brazil, about the relationship among youth, culture, and the media; research in which I have used Foucauldian tools of analysis. Those tools have proven highly effective, as they cause a revolution of sorts in the way we approach critical theory in the field of education. The goal of this chapter is to examine to what extent Foucault subverts, questions or, rather, expands and advances the critical work on ourselves, so crucially necessary in our time, and particularly in the daily life of schools, universities, and in academic life as a whole.
