Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times

International Perspectives

Stephanie Chitpin, John P Portelli, Stephanie Chitpin, John P Portelli

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138556157
• eBook ISBN: 9781351369206
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This volume explores how educational policy is changing as a result of neoliberal restructuring and how these issues affect educators' practice. Evidence-based chapters present a sharp analysis of neoliberal education policy while also offering suggestions and recommendations for future action to bring about change consistent with more robust understandings of democracy. Covering issues relating to historical context, philosophical assumptions, policy implementation, accountability, teacher professionalism and standardization, Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times critically engages the ways micro- and macro- neoliberal politics shapes the purposes and implementation of schooling.

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Introduction

Stephanie Chitpin and John P. Portelli

In the last 35 years, education has been vastly influenced by neoliberalism. A critical analysis of the ideological impact of education in the Western world since 1900 yields a pattern in which ideologies change and reappear. The introduction of compulsory schooling in the middle of the nineteenth century was the result of two contemporaneous ideologies: in North America, it was introduced primarily to prepare the vast numbers of new immigrants for the workforce in the factories and their regimentation; in Europe, as a result of Bismarck’s thinking and impact, compulsory schooling was introduced as a preparation for the military. The conservatism associated with such compulsory schooling eventually came under attack. For example, the progressive education movement, which was part of a larger social movement in the West that defended women’s and children’s rights, and the dignity of labour, harshly and legitimately critiqued conservative or traditional education. The prime example of such critique is seen in the extensive work of John Dewey (1966) and others, like Theodore Brameld (1965) and George Counts (1929).

However, the progressive movement as originally conceived by Dewey began to be disbanded in the 1930s because of misinterpretations by both proponents and critics. And yet, the plea for democratic education persisted. In Europe, for example, we see the impact of Maria Montessori, whose work was inspired by her own endeavours in the slums of Rome and whose educational perspective included a very strong social component. In Spain, we find the work of Francisco Ferrer (in Fidler, 1985), who established the La Escuela Moderna, modelled on the thinking of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which attracted the attention of internationally renowned authors, such as George Bernard Shaw and Leo Tolstoy. In England, we find the establishment of A. S. Neill’s (1960) Summerhill, referred to as a “free school,” which still exists to this day.

By the 1950s, we begin to observe a backlash against progressive education that increased when the Russians overcame the Americans’ attempt to be the first to send a satellite into space. As a result, in the USA, Dewey’s work became discredited and a narrow form of conservatism, based on the “3Rs,” became popular again. However, in 1967, with the Plowden Report in the UK, child-centred education came into vogue again. In Ontario, in 1968, the Hall–Dennis Report ushered in a new era of progressive and child-centred education, which had an impact throughout all of Canada. Then, in the 1980s, a new form of progressive education gave birth to the Whole Language Approach, which, by the early 1990s, was under attack by conservative forces.

This brief analysis of the development of ideological influences on education in the Western world demonstrates the continuous tension that existed between two fundamentally different perspectives. And this tension has continued to exist over the past 35 years. During this period, we encounter the impact of neoliberalism on education, but also the popularizing of feminist and critical pedagogies in education. However, when it comes to major policy reforms, the major impact is that of neoliberalism.

But what is neoliberalism? It has been defined as the shift back to a free market approach to economic governance, championed most fervently by Milton Friedman and the “Chicago School” of economics in the 1970s; a shift that is described as a backlash against the previous three decades of Keynesianism. Harvey (2007, p. 22) defines it as:

a theory of political economic practices proposing that human well-being can best be advanced by the maximization of entrepreneurial freedoms within an institutional framework characterized by private property rights, individual liberty, unencumbered markets, and free trade. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices.

In addition, he notes, “It is also characterized by a shrinking and privatizing of government services and the reduction of the protections that welfare states have traditionally provided against the effects of markets” (Harvey, 2007, p. 22).

There is no doubt that neoliberalism is both an economic and political ideology. However, as social and cultural critics, such as Michel Foucault (2008) and Wendi Brown (2005), have argued, neoliberal economics and politics have had a substantial impact on every sector of culture, including education. Hence, Ferguson and Hong (2012) define neoliberalism as the current stage of racial capital that emerged after the worldwide liberation movements of the mid-twentieth century. Additionally, Elizabeth Povinelli (2011, p. ix) depicts neoliberalism as “the governance of social difference in the wake of anticolonial movements and the emergence of new social movements.”

Following Paulo Freire’s characterization of the impact of neoliberalism in education (Freire, 1998), and other studies on neoliberalism in education (Mayo, 2015; Giroux, 2014; etc.), the elements of neoliberalism in education normally include the following: an emphasis on excessive individualism and competition; standardization or one-size fits all; narrow forms of accountability, reductionism, free choice and fatalism. It has also been argued (Portelli and Konecny, 2013) that such qualities defy, contradict or disregard the two basic liberal principles of individual rights and negative freedom. Classic liberalism did not promote an excessive form of individualism, nor did it conceive of freedom without moral limits and responsibilities. However, it has also been contended that, in its very roots, liberalism almost inevitably had to lead to neoliberalism.

What has been the response to the impact of neoliberalism in education? While numerous Western governments have endorsed, albeit possibly unwittingly, many of the characteristics of neoliberalism in education, in academic circles and in the field the response has been quite critical. In general, one can identify two kinds of critics: critical and feminist pedagogues, anti-oppressive educators and de-colonizing educators; and liberally oriented educators. The former group includes intellectuals and activists like Giroux (2010), McLaren (2005), Kincheloe (2009), Darder (2012), Mayo (2015), Au (2007; 2013), Hyslop-Margison (2008) , Ryan (2015) and Portelli (2012). The central point from these intellectuals is that neoliberalism has deceived the basic principles of critical-democracy, based on equity and robust social justice, and, as a result, it has created a new form of colonialism.

The second group includes authors like Diane Ravitch (2010) and Webb, Briscoe and Mussman (2009). While these authors are critical of aspects of neoliberalism, they still base their arguments on the liberal notion of “equality of opportunity.” Nowhere does Ravitch, for example, question the notion of equality of opportunity, as it does not take equity, and varying histories and contexts, into account. What Ravitch fails to realize is that what is needed is much more than “equality of opportunity” to “level the playing field.” As a result of the neoliberal focus on narrow forms of accountability, Ravitch argues we are risking students becoming educated people. The crux of the matter, however, is that none of her recommendations refers to or even indirectly indicates that, to be educated, one needs to be aware and conscious of substantive issues and ways of dealing with equity and social justice problems and realities.

In a similar vein, Webb et al. (2009) bemoan the impact of neoliberalism, including the erosion of democratic education in teacher education programmes. Webb et al.’s (2009, p. 12) primary recommendation is “to develop collaborative skills as they [teacher candidates] develop an understanding of their own position with the neoliberal society and their future roles as educators with such a society.” This is a very weak recommendation, as there is no mention of how to deal with oppressive conditions of abuse of power in relation to race, class, gender and sexuality, among other things. Ultimately, liberal positions that do not base their actions on robust conceptualizations of equity (rather than simply equality of opportunity) and social justice, explicitly linked to issues of oppression and colonialism, misunderstand or misinterpret the politics of praxis, as understood in the critical tradition.

The latter point is a crucial cautionary note, since criticisms of neoliberalism by Ravitch and others are misleading and dangerous since, ultimately, they leave the fundamentals of neoliberalism untouched. In a way, such liberal stances are more perilous than mainstream positions that assume neoliberalism is and should remain the norm. It is easier, in the latter stance, to identify the atomistic ontology and the positivist epistemology that underlies neoliberalism.

Critical anti-oppressive and anti-colonial intellectuals and activists have suggested several alternatives to the neoliberal stance. First, they remind us that, as moral agents, we have the responsibility and the ability to dream and envision a more just and equitable world; it is not the case, contrary to neoliberalists in education, that all alternatives have been exhausted. Second, they propose and argue for a relational ontology where individuals are not conceived as independent atoms; individuals are constructed in an organic and interrelational manner. Third, they remind us that “evidence” is not exclusive of “empirical data”; there are other and equally worthwhile realms of evidence in the spiritual, philosophical and literary realms. Finally, they propose an ethics of subversion that takes advantage of the cracks and inconsistencies created by neoliberal structures and systems.

The chapters in this collection are conceived from a critical, anti-oppressive and anti-colonial perspective. The book is divided into three sections. The chapters in the first section, “Foundational Issues in Education,” offer a combination of historical, sociological and philosophical bases for the remainder of the chapters. These disciplines are inevitably intertwined with policy development and analysis. Baldacchino (Chapter 2) presents a critical history of neoliberalism in education; Smyth (Chapter 3) revisits the perennial concern about critical reflective practice and argues that a more sociologically informed and critical perspective is needed to counter the pervasiveness of neoliberalism; and Dei (Chapter 4) argues that neoliberalism continues to reproduce colonialism both explicitly and implicitly through societal structures.

The second section, “Impact of Neoliberal Education Policy,” focuses on specific examples or cases of the neoliberal impact in education. Darder (Chapter 5) analyses educational reform in neoliberal times in the USA, focusing on how it has created exclusions that continue to reproduce inequities and, hence, perpetuates the hegemony of the capitalist market. Orelus (Chapter 6) critically examines the context of the impact of neoliberalism in Haiti, specifically with regard to language policies and practices. Dionne and Milley (Chapter 7) present a critical examination of the impact of neoliberal assessment practices in Canada and identify technical, political and ethical problems with large-scale assessment policies and practices. The final chapter in this section, by Milner and Stevenson (Chapter 8), focuses on the impact of neoliberalism on teacher professionalism in England. The authors argue that neoliberalism has had a very negative impact on teachers’ work and identity, and that this, in turn, has impacted the quality of education.

The third section, “Standardization and Marketization in Educational Policy,” provides an examination of the impact of standardization in education in Ontario, Canada, and marketization in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Australia. Bale (Chapter 9) criticizes the most recent policy initiative in Ontario, “Achieving Excellence,” against the backdrop of other policies that govern Indigenous, French-Second-Language, English-Second-Language and heritage-language education programmes. He concludes that standardization reproduces the hierarchy of racialized and minoritized languages, and subordinates them to English. By focusing on recent education reforms in Kurdistan, Wahab (Chapter 10) argues that market-based reforms have diminished genuine democracy and led to a more restrictive, conservative educational system, as well as an ethno-nationalist struggle. The final chapter, by Sawyer and Munns (Chapter 11), discusses the impact of marketization in Australia. In particular, the authors demonstrate its negative impact on poor and low socio-economic status families who cannot afford to “choose”; hence, the quality of their children’s education has suffered.

While the chapters present a sharp, emphatic and vigorous critique of neoliberal education policy, based on evidence gathered in their specific contexts, they also offer suggestions and recommendations for future action to bring about change consistent with more robust understandings of democracy. These proposals are crucial, since they indicate possibilities and hope for change. Without such a perspective, we will fall into the trap of neoliberal fatalism: namely, that nothing other than neoliberalism is beneficial. However, in fact, even from an economic perspective, recent worldwide developments have shown that neoliberal economics do not achieve the promised freedom, wealth and democracy; hence, the importance of critically analysing the impact of neoliberalism on educational policies in a variety of contexts, as this collection does.

In conclusion, while we will not list all the specific recommendations made by the authors, it is imperative to highlight a major common point that emerges throughout the entire collection: if we truly believe in genuine democracy, then we need to conceptualize the world and education differently than we have done in the last two centuries of compulsory schooling, which has led us to this dangerous neoliberal predicament. The authors also recomm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editor Introduction
• 1. Introduction
• PART I: Foundational Issues in Education
• PART III: Standardization and Marketization in Educational Policy
• About the Contributors
• Index