Critical Theory Essay

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Critical Theory and the Leading Theorists in Education
Theorists play an important role in society today. Members of the community look to these leaders of their field to help guide and make understanding of the situations we approach in life. There are many different views on the topics in society, especially education and how we learn. ________ The Critical Theory and leading theorist have influenced how we view education and driven to shape our understanding of how we learning in the world today.
When learning about a topic it is beneficial to trace it back to the beginning. According to Kincheloe & McLaren (2002), The Critical Theory originated in Frankfurt, Germany after the devastation of World War I. They report The Critical Theory being developed in The Frankfurt School by a group of Marxist theorist. The Critical Theory focuses on ___88_____.
With any theory there are theorist who pilot the research for it. According to Jessop (2012), the principal theorists of the Critical Theory are Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), Theodore Adorno (1903-1969), and Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979). She also states, “Most prominent among the second generation critical theorists is Jürgen Habermas whose theory of communicative action is receiving increasing attention in education theory and is of great importance to anyone seeking to understand and defend the role of schools in developing democratic values and practice.” ______
One main theorist of the Critical Theory is Max Horkheimer. In 1930–1933, and again from 1949–1958, Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Max Horkheimer, 2013). Between those periods of time they record him living in exile, mainly in Ameri...

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...ented Critical Theorist. Marcuse was born in 1898 in Berlin. He served in World War I with the German army. After pursuing his studies in Freiburg, received his Ph.D. in literature. In 1928, he returned to Freiburg to study with German thinker Martin Heidegger. “Marcuse's first published article in 1928 attempted a synthesis of the philosophical perspectives of phenomenology, existentialism, and Marxism. Marcuse deeply identified with the "Critical Theory" of the Institute and throughout his life was close to Max Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, and others in the Institute's inner circle.” (Kellner, Herbert Marcuse, n.d.). Marcuse, a radical Jewish German, immigrated to the United States to spend the remainder of his life. He went to work for Office of Secret Services in 1941. By the end of World War II, Marcuse had become the head of the Central European Bureau.

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