In this article, F. Tony Carusi discusses the relationship between emancipation and oppression as one of the central pre-occupations of educational studies. Questions regarding the status of the oppressed within an oppressive system and their role in maintaining that system, as well as exploring theories and practices of emancipation in light of these systems are just some of the entry points educational researchers have made into this relationship. Given the interest in how it is that the oppressed contribute to their own oppression, it should come as no surprise that the concept of hegemony has found a home within this field. The author addresses these issues in the first section of his paper, then offers a review of some of the half-uses of hegemony within educational studies. The second section shows the underlying conceptual problems that arise when hegemony, understood in its narrow sense, is conflated with a theory of ideology that requires a privileged agent of change. The third section of this paper offers a brief conceptual development of hegemony to highlight the sense of political agency directed toward social change that is frequently overlooked within educational studies. Carusi concludes that educational studies with its unique commitment to critical theory and political action in education stands as an area in which wide-ranging theoretical and practical expertise can be explored. With support from educational studies research, the maintenance and oppression of hegemony has already received a great deal of attention, yet, with an ambivalent hegemony, educational studies may now turn to the formation and emancipation that hegemony also offers.