Pedagogic Being in a Neoliberal School Market: Developing Pedagogical Tact Through Lived Experience (original) (raw)

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...

Teachers ’ learning experiences in the context of neoliberal educational c hange

2018

Our aim is to describe how neoliberal changes in society are reflected in the teacher’s learning experiences and to analyse which learning experiences are more meaningful to teachers. The curriculum is changing constantly, and coping with this change requires learning, however, it creates certain tensions (frustration and stress) among teachers. According to Britzman (2007) the problem is inevitable, and she calls it uncertainty of teaching, which is driven by both the variability of situations and educational policy changes. An outstanding example of such changes is the democratic social order achieved by Estonia’s regaining of independence in 1991 (cf. e.g., Kitsing et al., 2016). Education was influenced by market economy principles and the liberal worldview. Similar changes in education continue, but are no longer so revolutionary and take place on a step-by-step basis as Estonia follows the global trend over the last decade (Ruus & Timoštšuk, 2014). The effect of such ideologic...

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.

Vol. 3, No. 2, 2012: Neoliberalism, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: A Global Perspective I. Themed Issue, Andrew Wilkins (ed.)

EDITORIAL Andrew Wilkins: Pedagogy of the consumer: The politics of neo-liberal welfare reform ARTICLES Kevin J. Burke: Strange bedfellows: The new neoliberalism of catholic schooling in the United States Christopher G. Robbins, Serhiy Kovalchuk: Dangerous disciplines: Understanding pedagogies of punishment in the neoliberal states of America Jon Frauley: Post-Social politics, employability, and the security effects of higher education Magnus Dahlstedt, Fredrik Hertzberg: Schooling entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship, governmentality and education policy in Sweden at the turn of the millennium Susan M. Martin: Education as a spectral technology: Corporate culture at work in Ontario‘s schools Glenn C. Savage: Being different and the same? The paradoxes of ‘tailoring’ in education quasi - markets Panayota Gounari, George Grollios: Educational reform in Greece: Central concepts and a critique

Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era

Explorations of educational purpose, 2009

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Learning in the Free Market: A Critical Study of Neoliberal Influences on Sweden's Education System

2014

This paper identifies and critically analyses the key neoliberal policies that have reshaped Sweden's education system over the last two decades and transformed students' learning. Since the 1990s and under the influence of neoliberalism, Sweden has introduced market-oriented policies in education and is currently considered to have one of the most decentralized school systems in the western world. The deregulation of public education in 1991 was expected to lead to a more effective allocation of public funds, as well as the development of innovative pedagogies, increased teacher professionalism and improved teaching methods and learning outcomes (Governmental bill 1991 as cited in Arreman & Holm, 2011). However, the intended goals have not been met and learning has instead been seriously compromised. By critically examining the policies of decentralization, free school choice and privatization, the paper discusses how learning has been redefined in terms of values, content, methods, equal opportunities and students' outcomes. Learning in Swedish schools reflects more and more the ideals of a market-oriented ideology and the overall performance of the system is seriously declining.

Twelve years of upper-secondary education in Sweden: the beginnings of a neo-liberal policy hegemony?

Educational Review, 2011

In this article we discuss data produced about learning practices and learner identities during the past 12 years of upper-secondary school development in Sweden based on ethnographic fieldwork that has examined these issues with respect to two sets of pupils from these schools: one successful, one unsuccessful. Two things are considered in particular. One is how these pupils and their school activities are described and positioned by teachers. Another is how pupils describe their own activities and position themselves. Some policy changes have been noted across the researched period. Questions relating to participation are considered in relation to them and there is also an attempt to make a connection to a possible social-class relationship. Our main concern however, is for how recent policy changes have been enacted in schools and classrooms and what effects this enactment seems to have had on learner subjectivity and learner identities.

Teacher Training, Research and Professional Development in a Neoliberal School: A Transformative Experience in Social Sciences

Social Sciences

In recent decades, discourse on quality, school effectiveness, autonomy, and accountability, among other topics, has been used to try to transform schools. This paper explores this situation from the teaching perspective of one of its authors. Using autoethnography as a research and formative strategy, a mixed category system is constructed by combining a central category (“Neoliberal school”) theoretically and deductively with three other subcategories of an emergent and inductive nature according to the parameters of grounded theory. The results reflect different perceptions of neoliberal educational discourse that depend on the discursive field in question (policy framework, school, department, or classroom). The conclusions underline the potential of autoethnography for understanding the current school reality and teacher professional development.

Towards a New Education Regime: The Neo-liberal Turn in Swedish Education Policy

Ålund, Aleksandra et al. (eds) Reimagineering the Nation: Essays on 21 Century Sweden

The focus of this paper is on the developments in Swedish education policy in the last two decades, following the lines of a neo-liberal economic re-orientation in Sweden, and its consequences for the democratic visions and realities of the education system. Focusing on the relationships between the goals of equality and equivalence, and the neo-liberal turn in Swedish education, we argue that the changes in the Swedish education system in the last two decades illustrate the effects of the priorities of the market principles that, when normalized in education, have created the foundation of the present divisions of school, educational options and outcomes for different students, along ethno-cultural/racial, gender, and class lines.