Professor Watchlist

Peter McLaren is Professor Emeritus at the School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. 

McLaren is considered one of the chief authorities in the field of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy is defined in the following manner by the North Wales Management School: 

“Critical Pedagogy is a philosophy of education that enables and encourages critical thinking in learners. With roots in critical theory, it calls on teachers and students to explore their surroundings and the status quo to examine:

• “power structures.
• patterns of inequality.
• oppressive acts and systems.
• social movements.
• political acts.”

In his book, Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education, McLaren wrote about what critical pedagogy means to him as a “struggle for a a socialist alternative to capitalism”: (See screenshot of book below) 

Peter McLaren is a frequent contributor to the LA Progressive and has written several articles for the publication. Most of his writing is politically themed and written from a blatantly left-wing perspective. 

In a February article titled “Saving the Department of Education,” McLaren wrote in defense of the U.S. Department of Education and criticized President Trump’s agenda toward it, likening the president to a monarch. 

“Like a monarch sharpening his blade to sever the ties of a past he deems unworthy, Donald Trump has fixed his gaze on the towering citadel of the U.S. Department of Education, drafting an executive order that could spell its right-wing undoing. The ink has not yet dried, but the decree moves like a specter through the corridors of power, whispered in hushed tones among those who see its arrival as both inevitable and cataclysmic.”

McLaren wrote symbolically of the department and the lasting effect its programs will have even if it is axed by the current presidential administration: 

“Yet, even if the department falls, the programs it once housed may not vanish entirely. Like ruins repurposed by conquerors, some will be scattered across other federal agencies, reduced to mere fragments of their former grandeur.” 

He continued:

“The funding streams that once nourished the education of low-income students and children with disabilities predate the department itself—an ancient infrastructure woven into the very sinews of the nation. This foundation, dug deep into the soil of American policy, remains a resilient relic that even Trump may find difficult to entirely dismantle. Though the department may be erased from the map, these programs, like enduring monuments, may continue to pulse quietly in the background, their influence felt even in the absence of the institution that once gave them shape…”

McLaren’s most recent LA Progressive article discusses the relationship between the U.S. and Russia and their “two fascist” leaders. 

Published – February 21, 2025