Peter McLaren

Who is Peter McLaren?

Peter McLaren is a Professor in the Division of Urban Schooling, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently Distinguished Fellow in Critical Studies at Chapman University, California. He is the author and editor of forty-five books and hundreds of scholarly articles and chapters. His writings have been translated into 20 languages.

McLaren is married to Yan Wang from Northeast China. They currently live in Orange, California. He has a son and daughter from previous marriages.

He is known as one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy and for his scholarly writings on critical literacy, the sociology of education, cultural studies, critical ethnography, and Marxist theory. He has developed a reputation for his uncompromising political analysis influenced by a Marxist humanist philosophy and a unique literary style of expression. He has worked with Abahlali baseMjondolo, in South Africa; the landless workers’ movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST, in Brasil, the Zapatistas in Mexico, and members of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.

Professor McLaren is a faculty member at the Institute of Critical Pedagogy at The Global Center for Advanced Studies and he lectures worldwide on the politics of education. Locations of his speaking engagements have included China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Germany, Cuba, Australia, Finland, England, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Poland, Israel, Palestine, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Serbia, Croatia, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden, Thailand, England, Scotland and Ireland. In Finland he gave an Opening Lecture in Paulo Freire Research Center–Finland Inauguration.