Struggles Over the Purposes of Schooling in a Democratic State brings together a group of essays that demonstrate how the aims of schooling relate to the issues of who is to be schooled and the methods of instruction used in schools. Beginning with a discussion of the historical perspectives on the goals of schooling, the essays focus on both the traditional and modern ideas and challenges that the education system in America has been built around and still deals with today. They then move into the goals of schooling and its relationship to work, questioning the nature of the approaches to education from a direction that emphasizes its application in the working world through the discussion of philosophies from Marx through those of today.

Contributions by: Jean Anyon, Samuel Bowles, Martin Carnoy, Jill K. Conway, George S. Counts, John Dewey