In a chapter titled "On Analyzing Hegemony" in his book, Ideology and Curriculum (1990), Michael Apple argued for the absolute necessity of situating knowledge, the school, and the educator him or herself within the real social/historical conditions that constitute these elements if we want to be serious in our appraisal of the role of education in a complex society. Although all three elements are crucially important, in this paper I focus on the educator. More specifically, I construct an argument for the fundamental importance of critical self-reflexivity as a necessary condition for theorizing pedagogies relevant to American schools in an age characterized by unprecedented global flows of human beings, cultural artifacts, economic capital, and media representations.

About the Author

Jenna Min Shim is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education at University at Albany. Prior to pursuing this degree, she was a performing pianist and a TESOL educator. Her research focuses on multiculturalism and intercultural understanding in the globalized, internationalized world of the 21^st century.