Critical theory sees its own central purpose as the destabilization of such knowledge. In the place of this type of knowledge, critical theory seeks to generate alternative knowledge forms, specifically, those shaped by social interests who are democratic and egalitarian.
Critical Theory does so in the interests of “social justice,” especially in the interest of “those who are oppressed” (Nichols & Allen-Brown, 1996, p. 226). In this essay I am going to discuss how critical theory can solve the problem of drop-out in the school. Critical theory thus opens up possibilities for analysis of power, discourse and historical understandings.
In so doing critical theory mandates reflexivity in research and writing, attuning researchers “to the assumptions underlying their own busy empiricism” (Agger, 1991:111). We live in a society that view a school as a common thing for children to attend, usually children go to school from the age of six, this has become a culture or a systematic way of life, critical theory as a method of enquiry claims that power structures do not just drive the economic and social life, but they influence the way we think and how we do things
