Michael Apple

Acting President, Distinguished Guests, Graduates, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

Michael Apple, began his professional career as an elementary and secondary school teacher in 1962 in his native New Jersey. He quickly became involved in his Trade Union, including serving as President from 1964 – 1966. This was the beginning of a life long commitment to education as a public good, of its importance for social justice and change, and of the equal importance of valuing the collective endeavors of teachers in fomenting that good.

Michael graduated from Columbia University, New York, with his MA in 1967 and Education Doctorate in 1970, setting him on the road to a distinguished academic career in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy in University of Wisconsin Madison, where he remained until 2018. In recognition of his outstanding contribution, he was appointed to one of the most prestigious university wide Chairs - the John Bascom Professor.

Michael Apple is a renowned World Scholar, a Laureate of Kappa Delta Pi – the US based International Honor Society in Education. Membership of this Laureate chapter is limited to 60 living scholars judged to have made a significant and lasting impact on the profession of education. (Early awardees for example included John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Albert Einstein).

This award in 2012, comes on foot of a distinguished career in teaching, research and community activism centered on critical education, cultural politics, curriculum theory, and the development of democratic schools. The depth and breath of Michael’s work is reflected in the 40 books he has published; in addition to 300 academic papers in the most prestigious journals in the field. His books have been identified by the International Association of Sociology as among the most important books of 20th Century Social Sciences (Official Knowledge – Democratic Education in a Conservative Age published in 1983) and by the American Educational Research Association as ‘outstanding’ for his book: ‘Educating the ‘Right Way’ – Markets, standards, God and Inequality published in 2001.

Michael Apples’ global impact is reflected in the multiple translations of his books but also in his international demand as keynote speaker and collaborative progressive educator. He has been honoured with multiple degrees and distinguished professorships (in South America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the USA). He currently holds an honorary Chair at Northeast Normal University, in China.

It is in reading through Michael Apples’ work and hearing him speak that his deep and profound connectedness to, and appreciation of, the power of education that is radical, challenging and speaks to ‘truth’, comes through. Now more than ever this is important. In Michael’s book entitled ‘Can Education Change Society’ (2013) he notes:

Crisis talk is often over-used in books that seek to deal with issues of crucial public importance. But this is a time when such talk seems almost understated. All around us the effects of such things as....growing economic inequalities, homelessness, anti-immigrant sentiment ...and so much more are becoming ever more visible. In schools, the achievement gap...the cuts in school funding...all of this is painfully evident. It forces us to ask whether education has a substantive role to play in challenging this situation and in assisting in building a society that reflects our less selfish and more socially and personally emancipatory values. (Apple 2013: 1)

Michael Apple has reflected these emancipatory values in his academic and community activism and commitment to grassroots organisations. His criticality has been underpinned by a constant search for collective possibilities for action that brings about change.

Here in Ireland and especially in UCD we have been truly fortunate to have an individual of such stature and humanity, as critical friend. He has shared his expertise generously, a strong and supportive advocate for scholarship and teaching in education, equality, and social justice – including the establishment of the Equality Studies Centre here in UCD in 1990, but also in profiling the work of Irish and early career scholars internationally through his membership of the editorial board of the journal of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland – Irish Educational Studies, among other roles.

Fundamentally, he has inspired those with a passion and interest in education to see the value in what they do, in connecting with the grain of decency, care and criticality that is the essence of the student teacher relationship, sensitive always to the power of and in education, for good.

UCD is proud to confer on Michael Apple the Degree of Doctor of Education for his service, commitment, and distinguished role in furthering critical scholarship in and of education. It is especially fitting that we do so at a conferring ceremony in which we celebrate the power and value of education, when we reflect on the influence of our own teachers, mentors and educators, and when we look to the future that you, the graduating class of 2022, will shape and form through your nurturing of the children and young people you will teach over your professional careers. As Michael himself says:

We cannot know the answer to the question of whether education can change society in the abstract...answers can best be found by joining in the creative and determined efforts of building a counter-public.

There is educational work to be done’

Michael, we salute in esteem and with gratitude your exemplary record in critical scholarship and teaching, an inspirer of teachers and educators for generations to come.

Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,

Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Litteris; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.