Journal Reviews Prof. Derek R. Ford's Communist Study: Education for the Commons

November 20, 2016

In a review of Derek R. Ford's Communist Study: Education for the Commons in Studies in Philosophy and Education, Weili Zhao writes, "As a Chinese citizen familiar with the term ‘Chinese Communist Party’ (CCP), the minute I saw the book title, the word ‘communist’ jumped out and set me wondering: would this communist be discursively and materially related to the (Chinese) Communist Party at all? Well, original in a way I’ve hardly imagined, Ford does enforce an intellectual and political connection between communist and the Party , theorized as a pedagogical commonness against and forged as a new form of social collectivity, to oppose the capitalist and democratic imperialism prevalent in the present educational world."

The review continues, "Ford adroitly mobilizes the notions of communist and study as organizing signatures, and enacts study a snot an alternative but as an ‘oppositional’ style of reasoning, which enables him to reiterate subjectivities, relations of productions, and education into a communist ‘pedagogical constellation’ (p. 3)."

Studies in Philosophy and Education is an international journal that focuses on the philosophical normative and conceptual problems and issues in educational research policy and practice. Access the complete review here.

Ford is an assistant professor of education studies at DePauw University.  Learn more about his book, which was published in September, in this previous summary.

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