Neoliberalism, education policy and the life of the academic: A poetics of pedagogical resistance

Abstract

The papers in this special issue on the spaces of pedagogy speak to the failures of neoliberal thinking when applied to education. Their pedagogical critique of neoliberalism contributes to a considerable body of work focused on challenging the driving discourses of education (or more accurately, school) systems. The source of the tensions between four decades of policy-supported educational marketization and the accompanying objections, rejections and warnings, require careful questioning in terms of what the very debate reveals about education, learning, school, pedagogy and so on. In this paper, these questions are asked in relation to neoliberal thinking about indigeneity, knowledge and the individual. The idea of what to do, how to approach things differently, draws together these critiques of neoliberalism in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to amplify the collective critique of neoliberalism. Analyses and challenges to educational relationships that deploy neoliberal thinking are positioned to keep in question the nature and purpose of neoliberalism.

The neoliberal turn in Higher Education

“…Writing on neoliberalism and Higher Education has been widespread, including in special issues of journals (e.g., Cannella & Koro‐Ljungdberg, ; Gibbons, ). Certain journals have, however, specialised in the topic, with Policy Futures in Education publishing 24 articles explicitly on the topic (i.e., with ‘higher’, ‘education’ and ‘neoliberalism’ in their titles, abstracts or keywords), Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 15, and Critical Studies in Education , Studies in Higher Education and Teaching in Higher Education each accounting for 13.…”

The impact of neoliberal discourse and the socio-economic status of parents on TEFL young learners’ achievement: Parental beliefs and behaviors in the spotlight

“…Owing to the importance of contextualizing SES within the bigger picture in education, the responses of these parents were analyzed by resisting or supporting the discourse of neoliberalism in education and related dominating ideologies in society. The discourse of neoliberalism in education is a topic of concern for many scholars and educators (Gibbons, 2018). Neoliberalism is an economic ideology that emphasizes the free market (Harvey, 2005).…”

“…In the Iranian context, the socio-economic status of parents could enforce the discourse of neoliberalism in education. The influence of neoliberalism, emphasizing the principles of market liberalism (Harvey, 2005), has garnered attention within educational contexts of Western societies (Gibbons, 2018). However, investigation into the replication and propagation of this discourse in the education of young learners of language in Iran, an Eastern society, remains limited.…”