Challenging the Notion of Crisis in Education: Reclaiming Agency and Intent

By Michael Thomas Smith

This book explores the narrative of education being in a state of perpetual crisis and the motivations behind the historical and contemporary tendency to exploit the same. Written as a call for greater media literacy, the book recognises how and when "solutions" to the oft-acknowledged educational crises fail to address root causes, which only ends up maintaining the status quo.

Chapters examine how the notion of education being in a perpetual state of crisis is often underpinned by lack of funding, cherry-picking of data, ideological imperatives, fashioning of public opinion as amorphous, or simple incompetence. Offering real-world solutions using international examples from Japan, India, Sweden, Russia, South Korea and more, explained through robust philosophical conceptions, the author advocates for scepticism and epistemic humility as a key component in education. The book ultimately calls for people to reclaim the agency they have collectively surrendered in face of these crises, and emphasises on forging a new path that prioritises forward-thinking movements.

This book will be of value to academics, postgraduates and scholars of education interested in a solution centric re-orientation of the ongoing narrative and notions of education.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1041196555
• ISBN13: 9781041196556
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 224 Pages