ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a justification regarding critical theory's role in educational theory. It focuses on Theodor Adorno's perspectives regarding the meaning and value of education. The notion of Bildung is central in Adorno's critical pedagogy. He builds this notion by supplementing it with his theories on Erziehung and Theorie der Halbbildung. Halbbildung emerged from Culture Industry, producing a consumerist and conformist culture – a culture of pacified and subjugated individuals whose attempts to realize their ideals of progress led them to be assimilated into the capitalist machinery. The small percentage of engagement with Adorno's reflections on education, especially in English literature, may perhaps is due to the limited primary sources in which he directly dealt with the topic. Adorno was one of those thinkers who did critical pedagogy prior to Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux. The notion of Bildung is central in Adorno's critical pedagogy.
