ERIC Number: EJ1088528
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Ecological Identity in Education: Subverting the Neoliberal Self
Kretz, Lisa
Leadership and Research in Education, v1 p4-21 2014
The neoliberal ideology that is hijacking educational institutions entails an atomistic, individualistic, and Western vision of self. Students are understood as competitive, economic, homogenous entities. Interpreted as information stockpiles, students collect the data necessary for the regurgitation that enables assuming their role in the marketplace. Alternatively, the ecological conception of self is relational, cooperative, embraces community relations, and reflects the insights of ecology. Students are recognized as diverse in terms of their particular learning needs, interests, strengths, and relevant personal history. The vision of the self that serves as the foundation to neoliberal shifts in education is, I argue, unhealthy, epistemically untenable, and problematically contradictory. Nurturing students' ecological selfhood is one way to subvert the neoliberal conceptualization of self and its attendant ideological constructions and assumptions.
Descriptors: Neoliberalism, Higher Education, Ideology, College Students, Student Characteristics, Self Concept, Ecology, Identification (Psychology), Interpersonal Relationship, Cooperation, Competition
Ohio Council of Professors of Educational Administration. e-mail: ocpeajournal@gmail.com; Web site: http://education-human-services.wright.edu/ocpea/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A