ABSTRACT
Critical philosophy’s true test, as Karl Marx suggested in his Eleventh Thesis on Feuerbach, lies not in the interpretation of reality, but rather in the transformation of it. The existence of a dialectical tension between the ‘language of critique’ and the ‘language of possibility’ (Simon, 1987) embodies critical theory’s concrete commitment to the humanization of reality. Postmodern theory’s failure, I argue, should not be ascribed to the quality of its interpretive logic, but rather to its abandonment of a practical humanistic commitment to the transformation of praxis. This abandonment has had a detrimental impact on critical theory’s standing in education over the last three decades, as its influence and relevance to the work of educators in the school waned. Now the time has come for critical theory in education to revive its early and fundamental humanistic commitment to the transformation of educational praxis and reestablish its currency.
