How does power operate on a day to day level in education? Is power always negative or oppressive? What is the relationship between the curriculum and power? And do our current theories of power do justice to what is happening in our professional and personal lives today?

This book explores various notions of power, including how it is produced and resisted, in education. It focusses on how power imbalances are maintained through education, and how historically entrenched inequalities, such as gender, race and class, continue to produce power imbalances in educational settings from classroom practice to policy. Drawing on a range of theorists including Marx, Foucault and Freire, and case studies from around the world, Naomi Hodgson tackles the key questions relating to education and power.