Loh, J., & Hu, G. W. (2014). Subdued by the system: Neoliberalism and the beginning teacher. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41, 13-21. (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
Educational neoliberalism has swept the world, and Singapore, with its much-lauded educational system, has not been spared. In fact, it has taken a stranglehold on the system, from its policymakers at the helm to its teachers at the chalkface. The embrace of neoliberal ideas has pervaded Singapore’s short educational history, from its colonial times to the present moment, undergirding various educational reforms intended to ensure economic survival in the global economy and prosperity for the nation. Through a slew of educational policies targeted at and enacted by the state-controlled educational organizations, chief among which are the state schools, these reforms have been promulgated as effective educational initiatives to develop each citizen to the fullest potential. Given its ideological centrality in these reforms, educational neoliberalism has exerted a palpable influence on principals, teachers, and their pedagogical practices through a torrent of various performance appraisal mechanisms meant to ensure accountability to the state and the various stakeholders, and stimulate competition in the form of ever-increasing scores, awards and recognized performances in different educational arenas. Thus, marketization and performance management have become the buzzwords for the education industry. Will Singapore’s educational system be able to survive this onslaught of neoliberal pressure? Can it counter the impact of educational neoliberalism on its teachers and their practices? Will its recent policy announcement of assessment reduction have an impact on this neoliberal discourse, or will the neoliberal juggernaut continue to thunder through the system, albeit with less rolling and clapping? Can the teachers contest and resist this neoliberal discourse, while struggling to stay afloat in the sea of performativity? It is these and other questions that have provided the impetus for the present article.
2015
Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education\_articles Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Education Policy Commons, Liberal Studies Commons, Other Education Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons
Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast
Policy Futures in Education
A major aim of this paper is to draw attention to the insidious manner in which the deficit discourse and practices associated with neoliberal reform are de- or re-professionalising educationists through an acculturation process. In the context of Ireland, as elsewhere, the author identifies how the three ‘technologies’ of Market, Management and Performance have inconspicuously but harmfully changed the subjective experience of education at all levels. It is argued that the power of privatisation in service delivery gives rise to change in education as part of a slow burn; how management is altering social connections and power relations to less democratic and caring forms, and how performativity and accountability agendas are radically undermining the professionalism of teachers in the hunt for measures, targets, benchmarks, tests, tables, audits to feed the system in the name of improvement. The paper adopts a personal tenor exhorting all educationists to become increasingly criti...
Neoliberal Elements in Canadian Teacher Education: Challenges and Possibilities
Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 2018
This article offers a critical reflection of the changes experienced in teacher education across Canada in light of the neoliberal impact on educational spaces. It also seeks to disrupt the neoliberal narrative and problematize a rationality that has permeated teacher education programs. The article maintains that the neoliberal agenda is incompatible with critical educational practices. As a mode of critical resistance to educational instrumentalism, the paper offers recommendations as part of its critique on the deleterious impact of neoliberalism. Cet article offre une réflexion critique des changements découlant de l'impact néolibéral sur les milieux éducatifs qui touchent la formation des enseignants partout au Canada. L'article veut également perturber la théorie néolibérale et problématiser une rationalité qui s'est infiltrée dans les programmes de formation des enseignants. L'article affirme que le programme néolibéral est incompatible avec des pratiques éducatives cruciales. Comme élément de sa critique de l'impact néfaste du néolibéralisme, l'article propose des recommandations en guise de moyens de résistance critique à l'instrumentalisme en éducation.
Paradox of developing teacher education: the neoliberal discourse in teacher students´talk
Recent studies has pointed out how neoliberalism has become part of higher education in United States (Giroux, 2015), UK (Watermeyer & Olsssen, 2016; Olssen, 2015), Australia (Angus, 2013) Northen Europe (Berg, et, al, 2016) and in Finland as well (Jauhiainen, et, al, 2015) Neoliberalism has set its foot on teacher education too (Aydarova, 2015). Olssen (2015) reveals the history of neoliberalism in UK, in his article, by presenting the theoretical background for neoliberalism and how its being enforced in higher education trough institutions which fund and measure the quality of research (129-148). Jauhiainen, et, al (2015) investigated the consequences of performativity culture in higher education, focusing on university staff, for example, researchers and lecturers. Neoliberalism in Finland, similar to UK; it is being enforced trough a range of new steering tools and practices called policy techniques , which include quality assurance, etc (Jauhiainen, et, al, 2015, 405). While most of the routes of which neoliberalism came part of higher education has been well acknowledged, one very potential and central ways is still poorly understood: the students. This lack of research is significant, if we do not investigate the role of students as potential carriers of neoliberalism to universities, we turn our eyes away from a key issue. In order to investigate this problem, we will study teacher students´ manner of speak when they discuss about developing teaching in university of Lapland´s music curriculum.
A Teacher's Guide to Neoliberalism
Each year, teachers in the United States find themselves in an increasingly defensive position. They work in underfunded school districts, are often underpaid, and they find their long-term prospects for employment dwindling as municipalities in economically distressed regions close schools. They watch as various movements seek to privatize public education—either by privatizing schools themselves or by privatizing the delivery of instruction through digital and cloud-based technologies. This confluence of threats, often simply referred to as " school reform," is in actuality an instance of the economic theory of neoliberalism. This article focuses on the ways in which the economic rationality of neoliberalism influences a variety of stakeholders in the public school system: students, teachers, school administrators, and the public as such. In each instance, it presents a critical engagement with neoliberal reformist ideology and offers educators practical strategies for asserting their professional value in the current political and economic climate.
Teacher Educators in Neoliberal Times: A Phenomenological Self-Study
Phenomenology & Practice, 2020
In Sweden, and most Western countries, pervasive neoliberal policies have dramatically transformed the entire education sector in a matter of decades. As teacher educators, we have experienced how neoliberal currents have pushed Swedish teacher education towards a teacher training paradigm which may risk undermining the foundations for professional judgement. Moreover, the Bologna Process and the introduction of New Public Management have had significant consequences for what it means to be a teacher educator. In this study, we present our everyday experiences of being teacher educators, immersed in a teacher education culture in Sweden which has evolved under the pressures of neoliberalism. To address these complex lived experiences we engaged in a phenomenological first-person account. Three main themes emerged from an analysis of lived experience descriptions: (a) Alignment Slaves; (b) Audit Puppets; (c) Techno Phobes. These themes reflect different lived dimensions of being teac...