The Impacts of Neoliberal Discourse and Language in Education: Critical Perspectives on a Rhetoric of Equality, Well-Being, and Justice

This edited collection combines quantitative content and critical discourse analysis to reveal a shift in the rhetoric used as part of the neoliberal agenda in education. It illustrates how concepts such as justice, opportunity, well-being, talent, and disadvantage have been hijacked by educational institutes, governments, and universities, and how neoliberalism has changed discourses about education and educational policy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 234 pages
Publication date: 26 September 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This edited collection combines quantitative content and critical discourse analysis to reveal a significant shift in the rhetoric employed as part of the neoliberal agenda in education. By meticulously analyzing, uncovering, and commenting on language as a fundamental tool of education, the text demonstrates how concepts such as justice, opportunity, well-being, talent, and disadvantage have been co-opted by educational institutions, governments, and universities. Through a detailed examination of vocabulary, metaphors, and slogans used in strategy documents, advertising, policy, and public discourse, the text illustrates how neoliberalism has altered discourses about education and educational policy. These chapters trace issues such as anti-intellectualism, commercialization, meritocracy, and the erasure of racial difference back to a contradictory growth in egalitarian rhetoric.

Given its broad international reach, this volume serves as a timely intervention in the studies of neoliberalism and education by providing a comprehensive perspective on how the language of neoliberalism has transformed our understanding of education. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers engaged in the intersections of education, policymaking, and neoliberalism.

Weight: 372g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367724177