ERIC Number: EJ979654
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1750-8487
EISSN: N/A
The (Absent) Politics of Neo-Liberal Education Policy
Clarke, Matthew
Critical Studies in Education, v53 n3 p297-310 2012
Despite its ideological saturation, recent neo-liberal education policy has been deeply depoliticising in the sense of reducing properly political concerns to matters of technical efficiency. This depoliticisation is reflected in the hegemony of a managerial discourse and the decontestation of terms like "quality" and "effectiveness", as well as in the apparent consensus around the necessity of particular practices, such as the adoption of "standards" and the implementation of high-stakes testing regimes. The reduction of the political to the technical is not only anti-political but also anti-democratic, with violence often unrecognised behind appeals to consensus, commonsense and "rationality". This study draws on the work of political theorists like Mouffe and Ranciere to critique the depoliticisation reflected in recent Australian federal government recent education policy, particularly its notion of an "education revolution" that pre-empts politics through a utopian harmonisation of difference and a reduction of the political to the merely technical and instrumental. This article concludes with some potential starting points for crossing, or traversing, fantasies in education which, along with a recognition of the inescapability of social and political antagonisms, could serve as a basis for a renewed emphasis on the importance of the political in education policy. (Contains 7 notes.)
Descriptors: Neoliberalism, Educational Policy, Ideology, High Stakes Tests, Politics of Education, Criticism, Foreign Countries, Policy Formation, Educational Practices, Educational Quality, Instructional Effectiveness, Educational Philosophy, Critical Theory, Social Isolation
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A