ABSTRACT
The matter of choice within a social context requires considerable attention. This chapter considers broadly the connection between the formation of consciousness (and thus the propensity for making choices), the propagation of ideology, and the operation of schooling within social formations. The capacity for making free autonomous choices may be greater in some social formations than others, but it is never unlimited, and we never have truly or completely free choice. The grounding for the position the author is adopting lies in the 'ruling class/ruling ideas' theory developed by Marx and Engels in The German Ideology, and more recently elaborated by Althusser. Teachers will have to devise ways of acting in a counter-hegemonic manner whilst working within a material ideological context, and they will also have to recognize and significantly transcend their own ideological constitution whilst living within the context that brings about that constitution in the first place.
