Joe L. Kincheloe: Genies and wishes: a review of Key Works in Critical Pedagogy

We review Key Works in Critical Pedagogy: Joe L. Kincheloe edited by kecia hayes, Shirley R. Steinberg and Kenneth Tobin, which gathers the seminal works of Joe. L. Kincheloe and pairs them with contemporary scholars who respond to and push forward Kincheloe’s work. The chapters of Key Works in Critical Pedagogy are arranged to begin with Kincheloe’s earlier works, going back to 1991, and progress through to the last works he published before his death in 2008. Through this format, readers are able to see the evolution of Kincheloe’s scholarship. In addition to this, a few key authors provide a behind the scenes look at the man who wrote the texts. As Kincheloe’s ideas and the ideas of the scholars that he drew from are presented, applied, reworked and reconfigured, they shift and transform. The response chapters work to (in effect) show us the notes in the margins of scholars who have been influenced by Kincheloe’s ideas. Using the metaphors of lamps and wish-granting genies, we argue that this book is an important tool in illuminating the way forward for social justice work, published in an historical moment that requires precisely this.