Teaching & Talks

Kenneth J. Saltman’s teaching and public presentations explore educational policy, politics, privatization, democracy, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, and technology. His courses and lectures connect theoretical inquiry with contemporary struggles over schooling, public life, and democratic possibility.

Teaching Areas

Educational policy and politics
Sociology of education
Critical pedagogy
Philosophy of education
Political economy of schooling
Culture and education
Technology and education
Privatization and public schooling
Democracy and educational reform

Selected Courses and Topics

Politics of Education
Sociology of Education
Philosophy of Education
Political Economy of Urban Education
Culture and Education
Power, Politics, Ideology, and Education
Identity and Education
Law and Education
Educational Policy Foundations
AI Schools and the New Child Labor

Selected Invited Talks

Defending the Indefensible, Dismantling the Democratic: Liberal Technocracy, MAGA Authoritarianism, and the Rentier Order in U.S. Schools Society for Critical Exchange Winter Theory Institute, 2026

War on Education and Democracy: Book Banning, Censorship, Racism, and “Don’t Say Gay”
American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 2023

Capitalizing on Disaster: Schooling Privatization in New Orleans, Chicago, and Iraq
American Educational Research Association Division B Invited Session, New York, 2018

The Swindles of Philanthrocapitalism: The Case of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2017

Keynote Address: Corporate Power and Corporeal Control
AATC Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2016

Beyond Mapping the Global Education Reform Movement
Politics of Privatization in Education Symposium, New York University, 2016

Smart Drugs: Corporate Profit and Corporeal Control
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014

The Failure of Corporate School Reform: Chicago and Beyond
University of Rochester Warner School of Education, 2012

Venture Philanthropy and the Neoliberal Assault on Public Education
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 2011

Speaking Topics

Kenneth J. Saltman is available for lectures, panels, interviews, and invited talks on topics including:

AI, digital platforms, and the future of public education
Educational privatization and democracy
The politics of school reform
Critical pedagogy and educational justice
Venture philanthropy and educational policy
Culture wars, censorship, and educational repression
Educational technology and the political economy of data
Resilience, disaster, and crisis capitalism in education