Are current educational reforms really democratic?

Professor Michael Apple’s public lecture 

The School of Education was proud to host a public lecture on June 16th given by Professor Michael Apple.

Professor David Kirk, Head of the School of Education; Professor Apple; and Professor Ninetta Santoro, Director of Research

Attended by over 200 members of the Scottish education community, from practitioners to policy makers, the lecture addressed some of the major questions and challenges facing education systems worldwide. Drawing on a number of international examples of education policy and practice, and weaving them together with key educational and social theories, Professor Apple provoked, challenged, inspired and motivated the audience to engage with the complexities of neoliberal universities, equity, and democracy.

 
Professor Apple also spent an afternoon with postgraduate students discussing the tasks of the critical scholar/activist in education. He led a lively two-hour discussion about the role of the critical scholar as an activist engaged not only in  democratic educational theories, but also, and above all, in creating meaningful links between theory, policy and practice.  The students left inspired and reassured by Professor Apple's commitment to making academic work count in wider society.

In addition to the main public lecture and the work with the postgraduate students, Professor Apple also addressed a group of seventy senior secondary school pupils from the School of Education’s partnership schools.  He spoke about the potential for education to change society.  The pupils had the opportunity to discuss some key ideas with Professor Apple after the lecture.  Two S6 pupils from St. John Ogilvie High School wrote with feedback about the session.

"Recently I visited Strathclyde University to attend an Educational Conference with Professor M Apple. During that visit Professor Apple spoke about his life and he told a very inspiring story about how he became a teacher and then later a Professor. I found the talk very moving.  His speech was very emotional and motivational. Coming to this event and hearing Professor Apple speak has given me the determination to become a teacher and help sculpt young people's lives and develop their futures."

Natasha Reeves

 
"I found the lecture by Professor Apple extremely interesting and it has influenced me and the way I think about education as a whole. The lecture was inspiring and it gave me an insight into the life of a teacher and the teaching profession. He explained very well the difficulties that teachers face in reality and the great rewards they experience in their chosen career."

Jude McCafferty 


We are most grateful to Professor Apple for delivering a series of lectures and seminars that will long be remembered by those fortunate enough to have been present.

Professor Apple is an internationally renowned scholar and public intellectual. He currently holds one of the most prestigious Chairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he is the John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies.  He has worked on educational reform, lectured, and taught in many national contexts where his material has been extremely influential in the creation of new models of research and the development of more critically democratic educational policies and practices. Professor Apple has been selected as one of the fifty most important educational scholars in the 20th Century.  His books Ideology and Curriculum and Official Knowledge were also selected as two of the most significant books on education in the 20th Century.