The Origins of Critical Theory in Education: Fabian Socialism as Social Reconstructionism in Nineteenth-Century Britain

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to examine the influence of Fabian Socialist thinking as the primary force in the development of critical theory as applied to higher education in Britain. The paper covers the impact of scientific Fabian Socialism and the establishment of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Frankfurt School and the rise of critical theory and pedagogy, and offers a critique of these perspectives. The social reconstructionist theory, worked out in the USA, posits schools and teachers as planned agents of social and cultural reform by addressing and solving practical social problems. The reconstructionists and critical theorists embrace notions of equality, the eradication of social injustices, multiculturalism, increasing levels of social consciousness and the discussion of controversial issues through employment of critical forms of pedagogy. In Britain, Fabian Socialism led directly to the establishment of the Labour Party as a political entity.

• Fabian Socialism
• social reconstructionism
• critical theory
• critical pedagogy
• Frankfurt School
• London School of Economics and Political Science

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland, Limerick, Ireland, 21–23 March 2013.

Notes

1 Fabian Socialism was named after the Roman general Quintas Fabius Maximus, who preferred attacks of incremental attrition in his war with Hannibal, rather than direct military confrontation.

2 The 13 Nobel Prize winners include: 1925, George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize in Literature (Shaw refused the money); 1950, Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize in Literature; 1950, Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize; 1959, Lord Phillip Noel Baker, Nobel Peace Prize; 1972, Sir John Hicks, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly); 1974, Friedrich von Hayek, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly); 1977, James Meade, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly); 1979, Sir Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly); 1990, Merton Miller, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; 1991, Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; 1998, Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; 1999, Rob Fabianert Mundell, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; and 2001, George Akerlof, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly).

3 Ralf Dahrendorf argues that the proposal to establish the LSE was first hatched at a breakfast meeting on 4 August 1894 attended by G. B. Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and Graham Wallas.

4 Archibald Henderson, Shaw's biographer, actually stayed with him a while, taking leave from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and wrote: ‘Shaw actually lived with the Webbs a great deal between 1893 and 1898’ (1956, p. 335).

5 Herbert Spencer, letter to W. A. S. Hewins, Director of the LSE, 24 March 1897, Hewins Papers, 44/146.

6 The author was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Harvard's Graduate School of Education in 1985 and after a lecture given by Paulo Freire had the opportunity to have a conversation with Freire, who, when asked of his political affiliation, stated ‘I am a Christian Socialist’.

7 It is of interest to note that others like Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist, were addressing minority issues and problems through schooling with a focus on problem-solving using ‘action research’ methods (research by practitioners to solve practitioners own problems). Lewin, a German Jew, had also emigrated from Germany to the USA along with the Frankfurt School members at this time.

8 Cf. Jim McKernan's ‘Theodore Brameld: Anthropotherapy, Socialism and Social Reconstructionist Education Theory’, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland, University College, Cork, Ireland, 29–31 March 2012.