Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

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boldly seek alternative perspectives and approaches that attempt to understand the complexity
and richness of all of human experience.
Understanding critical epistemology allows us to see that teaching and learning are not “neutral”
activities—more than anything else, this is one area that traditional mechanistic educational
psychology has overlooked. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves what kind of human being we
hope to inspire and nurture through education: Are we interested in educating all of our children
to become members of a critical citizenry capable of sustaining democracy, or subservient
members of the labor force and consumer society? At its best, education can provide the joys
of discovery, intellectual empowerment, and freedom. Above all, providing students with an
educational experience that achieve these should be the starting point for all educational reforms
we undertake in the future.
SUGGESTED READING
Bourdieu, P., and Passeron, J.-C. (1990). Reproduction in Education (2nd ed.). New York: Sage.
George, J. (1999). Indigenous knowledge as a component of the school curriculum. In L. Semali and
J. Kincheloe (Eds.), What Is Indigenous Knowledge? (pp. 79–94). New York: Falmer Press.
Giroux, H. (1997). Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope. Boulder: Westview Press.
Kincheloe, J. (2004). Critical Pedagogy Primer. New York: Peter Lang.
Kincheloe, J. (2001). Getting Beyond the Facts. New York: Peter Lang.
Kincheloe, J. (1999). Trouble ahead, trouble behind: Grounding the post-formal critique of educational
psychology. In S. Steinberg, J. Kincheloe, and P. Hinchey (Eds.), The Post-formal Reader: Cognition
and Education (pp. 4–54). New York: Falmer Press.
Madison, G. B. (1988). The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity: Figures and Themes. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Semali, L., and Kincheloe, J. (Eds.). (1999). What Is Indigenous Knowledge? New York: Falmer Press.
Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience. Albany: SUNY Press.
Varela, F. (1992). Ethical Know-How. Stanford: Stanford University Press.