ognizes the importance of the language of critique, he is not willing to
be bound by the moral indignation that often produces such a language.
Instead, Kanpol sets his theoretical focus on a much wider terrain, one
that sees critique and possibility as mutually reinforcing each other. For
Kanpol, hope is the condition of agency and such agency must move
beyond the boundaries that separate the personal from the political, the-
ory from practice, and the private from the public sphere. Combining
personal narratives, case studies, and concrete classroom practice, Kanpol
attempts to speak to teachers about the importance of critical educational
theory and its value in redefining schooling as a crucial, democratic pub-
lic sphere. By narrating the ideological lineaments of his own educational
journey and attitudes toward public education, Kanpol's text opens up a
dialogue with teachers that asserts the importance of identity as a social
consideration that is forged in history and in the shifting, contradictory
terrain of struggle and self-reflection. Refusing to collapse the political
into the personal, Kanpol demonstrates masterfully how knowledge, au-
thority, and agency can be understood and transformed in a discriminat-
ing relationship between experience and critical reflection, practice and
theory.

Introductory texts are often demeaning to teachers. They are generally
written in a language that is superficial, paternalistic, and prescriptive.
Rather than opening up a space of contestation, insight, and hope, such
texts tend to diminish any sense of agency by assuming that there is no
room for critical engagement between the text and the reader. Instead of
being provocative and unsettling, they are often boring and dreadfully
conservative. Kanpol has avoided all of these theoretical and editorial
pitfalls and in doing so has redefined what it means to develop a critical
text that speaks to a broad popular audience. In part, this indicates his
willingness to take the notion of the public seriously; it also suggests the
passion he feels and writes about in viewing schools, teachers, and ed-
ucators as vital institutions and actors in the struggle over radical de-
mocracy. Without question, this is a book that will provoke, incite, and
open up new spaces for understanding the diverse legacy that critical
education has come to occupy within the last decade.

Henry A. Giroux

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