Books by Wayne Au

Dialectics of Education is a rich collection of essays analyzing both the role of education in shaping ideology in the United States and the political implications of struggles for educational justice. This book seeks to recover and reframe the dialectical materialist tradition in critical education, studies and carries this tradition forward into theory and practice relevant for today. Building on the tradition of the groundbreaking book Schooling in Capitalist America that was first published in 1976, author Wayne Au presents a Marxist perspective on educational policies and pedagogy and the highlights the potential for struggle in both the political arena and the classroom. This book is an essential tool in the growing resistance against the privatization of education and for the struggle for educational rights for all students regardless of ethnicity or social status.

Building on earlier work that reviewed curriculum texts, this book serves as a much-needed correction to the glaring gaps in US curriculum history. Chapters focus on the curriculum discourses of African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos during what has been construed as the "founding" period of curriculum studies, reclaiming their historical legacy.