An Indepth Interview with the world renowned sociologist of education, Michael W. Apple - Part I
Six years ago Michael W. Apple, the John Bascom Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, celebrated the 40th anniversary of his path breaking book Ideology and Curriculum (originally published in 1979), which established a relationship between education and economic and cultural power. Taylor and Frances brought out the 4th edition of the classic. I read the book when I was working as a cashier in a gas station at the university town of Davis, California on a graveyard shift in the summer of 1990. After 2 am, there were hardly any customers that stopped to buy booze, cigarettes, chewing gum, snacks, condoms or gas! So,I had plenty of time to devour it. Most nights were uneventful except one late evening when there was a drive-by shooting 100-yards away from the pumps. I was instantly hooked on Apple's sociological study of education. He was a huge name in the study of politics and sociology of curriculum. At the time, I was a student at the University of California at Davis and enrolled in an MA program in education, reading philosophy, psychology, linguistics, history and so on. .Subsequently, I enquired with him about the possibility of doing a PhD under his mentorship. The rest is history as they say. From the winter semester of 1992 till spring 1998, I spent 6 years under his academic supervision. We have been comrades and friends for the last 30+ years. A month ago, I paid my old teacher - now 82 - a visit in his down-sized flat a short walk on Mill Street from the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. We talked for a total of 6 hours over two consecutive days. He was generous with his time, and graciously allowed me to record an interview with him on his life's work. He is one of the world's leading sociologists of education who supervised over 100 doctoral students from around the world of whom only 1 or 2 did not complete their degrees, and has published 32 books in his half-century of influential academic career in the field. The result is this 3-part podcast. We touched on a wide variety of topics which were dear and near to both of us including the work of the renowned Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, the Friday Seminar he ran as a critical reading group at the home of the top-ranked Curriculum and Instruction Department, his own activism as a former teacher, a US military veteran and education, American imperialism and authoritarian regimes in places where he had held professorships including China. Apple came from a working class family of Eastern European Jewish migrants in Patterson, New Jersey, and considered himself proudly a "red diaper baby". He has been fuming about the Zionists, arrogating to themselves as "the voice of all Jews". Naturally, he shared his thoughts on Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine. Dr. Maung Zarni
