Joe L. Kincheloe

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Joe L. Kincheloe is an internationally-known Professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University (Canada). He has written more than 45 books, numerous book-chapters, and hundreds of journal articles on issues including but not limited to critical pedagogy, educational research, urban studies, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies. Born in Kingsport, Tennessee in 1950, Kincheloe received three graduate degrees from The University of Tennessee. His first academic position was on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation as the department chair of education at Sinte Gleska College (1980-1982). He was tenured at LSU-Shreveport (1982-1989), Clemson University (1989-1992), Florida International University (1992-1994), The Pennsylvania State University (1994-1998), and was the Belle Zeller Chair of Public Policy and Administration from 1998-2000 at Brooklyn College. Kincheloe co-authored the Urban Education Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, and served as Deputy Executive Program Officer there from 2000-2005. He moved to McGill University in January of 2006, and received a Canada Research Chair in October 2006. The father of four children, he has worked for the past 19 years closely with his partner, Shirley R. Steinberg.

His work draws from a number of theoretical traditions,and his analyses focus on the social, cultural, political, economic, and cognitive dynamics that contextualize teaching and learning. Dr. Kincheloe's research provides for a compelling understanding of the forces shaping contemporary education. Understanding these dynamics, educators are better equipped to formulate policies and develop actions that rigorously cultivate the intellect while operating in a more socially just and inclusive manner. A passionate public speaker, Kincheloe lays out these positions in a unique oratorical style that has been described as part Southern evangelist, part philosophy professor, and part rock music critic. He and Steinberg speak about critical pedagogy and cultural/media politics in North America, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia.

Prof. Kincheloe has founded the 'Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy' at the Faculty of Education, McGill University. Under Kincheloe's leadership the Freire Project is creating a global community of researchers and cultural workers in critical pedagogy (http://freire.education.mcgill.ca). Kincheloe is considered one of the leading scholars in critical pedagogy, critical constructivism, the research bricolage, critical multicultural education, and contemporary curriculum discourses. He is the architect of a critical cognitive theory, having developed the notion of a critical postformal educational psychology. Postformalism focuses on exposing the unexamined power relations that shape cognitive theory and educational psychology in a larger liberatory effort to develop a psychology of possibility. Such a critical psychology focuses on typically underestimated human cognitive capacities, the socio-cultural construction of mind, collective intelligence, and the unexplored dimensions of human cognition. Postformalism posits that mainstream psychology has historically dismissed the cognitive abilities of those who fall outside of whiteness, the middle and upper socio-economic classes, dominant colonizing cultures, and patriarchy. In this context critical postformalism becomes a socially transformative psychology.

Central to Kincheloe's work in all of these areas is the construction of a rigorous form of multidimensional scholarship that draws upon critical theory, critical pedagogy, feminist theory, complexity theory, indigenous knowledges, post/anti-colonialism, and other global discourses to help end dominant power-constructed human suffering. In his work over the last few years Kincheloe has focused much attention on the politics of knowledge and epistemology and the diverse ways they operate to shape human consciousness and socio-political and educational activities. He is dedicated to creating a critical pedagogy that helps individuals reshape their lives, become better scholars and social activists, realize their cognitive potential, re-create democratic spaces in a electronically mediated global world, and build and become members of communities of solidarity that work to create better modes of education and a more peaceful, equitable, and ecologically sustainable world. See Horn (1999) for a comprehensive overview of Kincheloe's work in the 1980s and 1990s.

For those who follow Kincheloe's work, he is viewed not simply as a key public intellectual of our era but a mentor and role model for young scholars. He and Shirley R. Steinberg are widely appreciated for the help they have extended to students as well as aspiring critical academics and social activists in their efforts to negotiate a place in the academy and the socio-political landscape. Together Kincheloe and Steinberg have helped scholars/activists from around the world develop and publish over 500 books. In this spirit Kincheloe offers a compelling vision of reconceptualized academic institutions grounded on both a hard nosed understanding of power and scholarship and a commitment to new conceptions of social justice and pedagogy. In recent years Kincheloe has come to be known internationally as the conscience of critical pedagogy.

Kincheloe's work is criticized for its use of a variety of methods and theories that serve to make issues more complicated than necessary. His work on the failures of positivism and mainstream Western research methods have been characterized by conservatives as an attack on viable modes of inquiry and accepted forms of reason. Detractors also critique his frequent attacks on U.S. educational, social, and foreign policy. Such attacks, it is maintained, are often unfair and reflect a one-dimensional biased point of view. His analysis of whiteness and white racism have often drawn fire from more moderate analysts.

Horn, R. (1999). Joe L. Kincheloe: Teacher as Researcher. Educational Researcher, 28, 4.

Kincheloe's recent books include:

authored:

Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction (2008). Amsterdam: Springer Publishers.

Critical Constructivism (2005). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Critical Pedagogy. (2004). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (2nd edition, 2008).

The Sign of the Burger: McDonald’s and the Culture of Power. (2002). Philadelphia, PA. Temple University Press. (Korean Edition, 2004).

Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative Paths to Empowerment, 2nd Edition. (2002). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Getting Beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in the Twenty-First Century. (2001). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Hacia una Revision Critica del Pensamiento Docente. (2001). Barcelona: Ocaedro.

How Do We Tell the Workers? The Socio-Economic Foundations of Work and Vocational Education. (1999). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

co-authored:

Reading, Writing, and Thinking: The Postformal Basics. (2006). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (with P.L. Thomas).

Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage. (2004). London: Open University Press. (with Kathleen Berry)

Art, Culture, & Education: Artful Teaching in a Fractured Landscape. (2003). New York:Peter Lang Publishing. (with Karel Rose)

Contextualizing Teaching: Introduction to the Foundations of Education. (2000). New York: Allan & Bacon. Longman. (with Shirley Steinberg and Patrick Slattery)

The Stigma of Genius: Einstein, Consciousness and Education. (1999). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Deborah Tippins and Shirley Steinberg)

Changing Multiculturalism: New Times, New Curriculum. (1997). London: Open University Press. (with Shirley Steinberg)

edited:

Classroom Teaching: An Introduction. (2005). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered (2004). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (Chinese Edition 2005).

co-edited:

Cutting Class: Socio-economic Class and Education. (2007). Boulder, Colorado: Rowman and Littlefield. (with Shirley Steinberg)

Critical Pedagogy: Where Are We Now? (2007). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Peter McLaren)

Doing Educational Research. (2006). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (with Kenneth Tobin)

Teaching City Kids: Understanding Them and Appreicating Them. (2006). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Kecia Hayes)

Urban Education: An Encyclopedia. (2006). 2 vols. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (with Philip Anderson, Kecia Hayes and Karel Rose). Rights bought by Rowman and Littlefield for 2nd edition: (2007) Urban Education: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators, Parents, and Teachers. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Educational Psychology: An Encyclopedia. (2006). 4 vols. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (with Raymond Horn).

Metropedagogy: Power, Justice and the Urban Classroom. (2006). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

What You Don’t Know about Schools. (2006). New York: Palgrave Press. (with Shirley Steinberg)

The Miseducation of the West: How the Schools and Media Distort Our Understanding of Islam. (2004). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Press. (Arabic Edition, 2005) (with Shirley Steinberg).