NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1074801
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 14
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1071-4413
EISSN: N/A
Corporate Speak and "Collateral Recruitment": Surfing the Student Body
McGloin, Colleen
Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v37 n4 p345-358 2015
Academic practice is scrutinized and regulated with such "Corporate speak" terms as "performance indicators," "benchmarking," "service providers" and "clients." As part of a field where ideological shifts continue to apply marketized frames of reference as neoliberalism tightens its grip, new terms and phrases are commonplace. These terms however acquire new and different meanings through appropriation, expropriation, or recycling of terms whose origins refer to other contexts, events, or histories. Like old songs, these re appropriated terms undergo a remix giving them a new "sound" so that often, recognition of previous tones disappears as they are excised from any former, less harmonious connotations. The genesis of this article is a solicitation to the author to be "profiled" in a faculty humanities brochure as part of "recruitment collateral." The request was made on the basis of previous research undertaken by the author on surfing and beach culture in Australia. Despite the political scholarship of that work and it's contestation of hegemonic symbols of nation, the terms "surfing" and "beach" were noted as potentially attractive subject matter for attracting seventeen-year-olds into the humanities, specifically, Indigenous Studies. In this article, the author admits to having been quite startled by the resemantizing of a term whose military metaphors in recent and ongoing histories are still in use and whose remix was so easily incorporated into the business of attracting potential students to humanities studies. The use of the term "recruitment collateral" invoked author Coleen McGloin, to think about how seamlessly the recycling of ideologically laden frames of reference, and inoculation of "corporate speak" are being introduced into the language, and how that can become a problematic process of either resistance or compliance for academics. McGloin uses the term "recruitment collateral" as a basis for a discussion of what she sees as an insidious reprocessing of language forms that seek to make innocuous, and delete from view their violent histories and political dimensions. She first considers "recruitment collateral" in relation to its semantic echoes of state-sanctioned violence, its obfuscation of racialized, gendered, class codes, and by extension it's euphemistic power as a pedagogical implement for attracting young students to humanities. Second, McGloin takes issue with the assumption that youth are an apolitical mass whose attraction to tertiary study is best effected through the enticement of the paraphernalia of youth culture. Finally, she discusses student engagement with the pedagogies presented in Indigenous Studies courses whose political foci and aspirations are always geared toward transformative learning and social justice.
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; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A