Peter McLaren
Peter McLaren (1948–) is a Canadian-born scholar who connected critical pedagogy to anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics, arguing that education must be understood within the global structures of capitalism and colonialism.
Core ideas
- Revolutionary critical pedagogy: McLaren extended Paulo Freire’s work by grounding it in an explicit Marxist and anti-imperialist framework, arguing that educational reform without structural economic transformation reproduces the conditions it claims to address.
- Education and global capitalism: McLaren analyzed how educational institutions serve the reproduction of capitalist social relations — producing compliant workers and consumers rather than critical, self-determining people.
- Solidarity across struggles: McLaren argued that educational struggles must be connected to broader movements against imperialism, racism, and economic exploitation.
Notable works
- Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education (1989)
- Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution (2000)
- Critical Pedagogy and Predatory Culture (1995)
Related
- critical pedagogy — the tradition he belongs to
- Paulo Freire — his primary intellectual predecessor
- Henry Giroux — a collaborator in developing critical pedagogy