Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines Marxism and related political-economic theory, and its implications for education around the world, as seen in the history of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory. It gives a brief overview of the history of Marxism and its legacy in Western philosophy and philosophy of education. The chapter considers the influence and evolution of Western Marxism and provides a rough typology and historical look at the transformations of Marxist inspired thought over time. Western Marxism developed as a reaction against Marxist-Leninism, more strongly influenced by Hegelian Marxism. Freire’s critical pedagogy, with its humanistic Marxist roots, has been highly influential among educational thinkers around the world, particularly in sociology and curriculum studies. In the 1980s, a few articles in Educational Philosophy and Theory align with trends in Access, in providing critiques of Western liberalism that make use of Marxist-oriented perspectives.