Conceptualizing Oppression in Educational Theory: Toward a Compound Standpoint

This article analyzes three paradigms of oppression that are influential in progressive approaches in educational research: oppression as cultural hegemony, oppression as capitalist accumulation, and oppression as discursive effect. It argues that these different models, and their strengths and weaknesses, are connected to different philosophical standpoints (ways of understanding reality and criteria of truth that are historically and socially situated). Faced with the intractability of educational injustices, it is necessary to bring the power of diverse critical positions together. The author proposes the construction of a "compound standpoint," grounded in a materialist framework, and describes how oppression can be understood more richly and accurately from this position.