This book is organized around three themes: mechanisms of domination and control; pedagogies of possibility; and theory as critique. It links education with an analysis of politics and economics, and takes as central the possibilities of schools as places where social critique and the empowerment of students can take place. The authors have considered the possibilities of student resistance and curriculum transformation, and have deepened their critiques to incorporate recent theoretical analyses influenced by feminist critiques, anti-racist approaches, and postmodernist thought.

In moving from theoretical analysis to "practical" examples of curriculum transformation and classroom practice, What Schools Can Do provides both a foundation for the analysis of schooling and alternatives for teaching practice.