Canadian Society for the Study of Education Conference

Canadian Society for the Study of Education Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 31 May- 3 Jun 2008 Educational Perversion and Global Neoliberalism Dave Hill University of Northampton, UK Chief Editor, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies www. jceps. com

Summary 1. Need to Contextualise Educational Change within Capitalism and its current stage, neoliberalism. Also within Neoconservatism. 2. The Current Neoliberal Project of Global Capitalism: its Motivation, Demands and its (‘raced’ and gendered social class) effects 3. Capital’s Business Plan for Education: Business Agenda FOR Schools; Business Agenda IN Schools; Business Agenda Internationally 4. Restraining and Resisting Neoliberalism: The Resistant Role of Critical Cultural Workers 5. Wider than Pedagogy and Curriculum: Arenas for action by critical transformative socialist educators 6. Where to go from here? Resources.

Context and Impacts of Neoliberal (and Neoconservative) Education Policies Social Class and Class War from Above The class impacts of Neoliberal Policies in Education in Britain and The USA (and elsewhere) include: (1) widening (`raced’ and gendered) social class educational inequalities; (2) weakening key working class organisations such as trade unions and democratically elected municipal government; (3) worsening pay, benefits and working conditions of workers in education- the intensification of labour and of the extraction of surplus value from workers’ labour power.

Results of the Neoliberalisation of Education 1: Loss of Equity, Economic and Social Justice and the Polarisation of the Labour Force 2: Loss of Democracy and Democratic Accountability 3: Loss of Democracy and Collegiality by the workers 4: Loss of Critical Thought. 5: Loss of the Hope of Global Equity 6: Loss of Workers’ Securities Effects on Workers’ Securities Case Studies in JCEPS, in the Wayne Ross- Rich Gibson edited book, in the forthcoming Brad Porfilio and Curry Mallot book, and the forthcoming Routledge and Neoliberalism Series. Also see Dave Hill online articles

Capitalist Education Agendas 1. Agenda In education: profits, direct or indirect 2. Agenda For education: hierarchically and differently skilled labour power PLUS ideological acquiescence 3. Agenda For education corporations: that are nationally based profiting within the global economy

Case Study in England Wales: Detheorized Teacher Education `How to' has replaced 'why to' in a technicist curriculum based on 'delivery' of a quietist and overwhelmingly conservative set of 'standards' for student teachers. Teachers are now, by and large, trained in skills rather than educated to examine the `whys and the why nots' and the contexts of curriculum, pedagogy, educational purposes and structures and the effects these have on reproducing capitalist economy, society and politics.

Different types of oppositional/ critical theory… all have political implications, from analysis to (in)action Critical Thinking Ken Zeichner, Dan Liston, Tom Popkewitz Critical Pedagogy (usually incorporating/ based on Freirean ideas) Ira Shor, Henry Giroux, Peter Mc. Laren Other Identitarian Critical Pedagogies. . e. g. feminist, queer, antiracist, and currently, Critical Race Theory Patti Lather, Judith Butler, David Gillborn Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy/ Socialist Education Mc. Laren post mid-1990 s, Paula Allman, Teresa Ebert, ‘The British Marxists’ (Glenn Rikowski, Mike Cole, Dave Hill, Jane Kelly, Terry Wrigley, Nick Grant). . and thousands of activists… this is grounded in Marxism and explicitly calls for the replacement of Capitalism by Socialism

On Reforms Marx and Engels 1977 [1847], p. 62) , we need to: fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of the movement And, in any case, reforms are not necessarily simply part of “minimum programme” realizable in the here and now of capitalist conditions and quiescent within them’. They can be in the nature of a kind of `transitional’ demand: a reform whose implementation would breach the framework of the current bourgeois order’ Leon Trotsky (e. g. Trotsky, 1938).

Reforms (and critical pedagogy) not enough!: The Task of Socialist Educators 1. to expose and organise and teach against the actual violence by the capitalist state and class against the `raced’ and gendered) working class; 2. to expose the ways in which they perpetuate and reproduce their power, that of their class, through the ideological and repressive apparatuses of the state (such as the media, the schooling, further education and university systems; 3. in particular the way they do this through demeaning and deriding the `cultural capital’ and knowledges of the (`raced’ and gendered) working class through what Pierre Bourdieu termed `cultural arbitrary’ and `symbolic violence’ – the way working class kids are largely taught they are crap, and upper class kids are taught they will control and inherit the earth, and some middle class kids are taught how to manage it for them; 4. argue for, propagate, organise, agitate for and implement democratic Marxist egalitarian change and policy- to move from deconstruction to reconstruction.

Class Consciousness The key task, for Marxist educators- indeed Marxist- is class and class consciousness. In The Poverty of Philosophy [1847] Marx distinguishes a 'class-initself' (class position) and a 'class-for itself' (class consciousness) and, in The Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels, 1848), explicitly identifies the 'formation of the proletariat into a class' as the key political task facing the communists.

Socialist/ Marxist Pedagogy/ Curriculum Schooling for Economic and Social Justice Mc. Laren (2000) extends the “critical education” project into “revolutionary pedagogy”, which is clearly based on a Marxist metanarrative. Revolutionary pedagogy: would place the liberation from race, class and gender oppression as the key goal for education for the new millennium. Education… so conceived would be dedicated to creating a citizenry dedicated to social justice and to the reinvention of social life based on democratic socialist ideals. (p. 196) Socialist Educators need to go beyond critique into action: importance of theory and analysis…also of action, action in different arenas …. . need more actual examples and practice published/ disseminated, from the tens of thousands of contemporary and historical examples of socialist/ egalitarian/ revolutionary pedagogy, curriculum, organisation of schooling… lots happening globally!

Richard Brosio (2008) Marx(ism) and neat lesson plans: Marx never provided a neat lesson plan for an alternative model to capitalism. Instead, he told us that if we come to understand capitalism, most of us will oppose it; however, we will have to figure out what to construct as we struggle against the system in our place and time. (Brosio, 2008)

• March 2003 • The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies is published by IEPS, the Institute for Education Policy Studies, an independent Radical Left/ Socialist/ Marxist institute for developing analysis of education policy. It is at www. ieps. org. uk The Journal JCEPS seeks to develop Marxist analysis of policy, theory, ideology and policy development. • The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies seeks and publishes articles that critique global, national, neo-liberal, neoconservative, New Labour, Third Way, and postmodernist analyses and policy, together with articles that attempt to report on, analyse and develop socialist/Marxist transformative policy for schooling and education from a number of Radical Left perspectives, including Freirean perspectives. JCEPS also addresses issues of Social Class, 'Race', Gender and Capital/ism; Critical Pedagogy; New Public Managerialism and Academic / non-Academic labour, and Empowerment/ Disempowerment. The journal therefore welcomes articles from academics and activists throughout the globe. It is a refereed / peer juried international journal. • Volume 6, Number 1:

Contents of latest edition of The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies ( vol 6(2), May 2008) May 2008 Ravi Kumar Against Neoliberal Assault on Education in India: A Counternarrative of Resistance Richard A. Brosio Marxist Thought: Still Primus Inter Pares for Understanding and Opposing the Capitalist System Alex Means Neoliberalism and the Politics of Disposability: Education, Urbanization, and Displacement in the New Chicago Adam Davidson-Harden Re-branding Neoliberalism and Systemic Dilemmas in Social Development: The Case of Education and School Fees in Latin Americ Philip Kovacs Neointellectuals: Willing Tools on a Veritable Crusade Raquel Goulart Barreto Recontextualizing Information and Communication Technologies: The Discourse of Educational Policies in Brazil (1995 -2007) Isaac N. Obasi World University Rankings in a Market-driven Knowledge Society: Implications for African Universities İlker C. Bıçakçı The capitalistic function of education-directed social responsibility projects in Turkey within the context of relationships between the p sector and NGOs Kariane Westrheim Prison as Site for Political Education: Educational experiences from prison narrated by members and sympathisers of the PKK Sima Sadeghi Critical Pedagogy in an EFL Teaching context : An ignis fatuus or an Alternative Approach? Martin Power “Crossing the Sahara without water”: experiencing class inequality through the Back to Education Allowance Welfare to Education pr Elaine Hampton U. S. Economic Influences on Mexican Curriculum in Maquiladora Communities: Crossing the Colonization Line? Richard D. Lakes The Neoliberal Rhetoric of Workforce Readiness Michael Corbett The Edumometer: The commodification of learning from Galton to the PISA Liz Jackson Reconsidering Affirmative Action in Education as a Good for the Disadvantaged Julia Hall, Kelvin Mc. Queen Review Symposium: Mike Cole Marxism and Educational Theory: Origins and issues (2008, London: Routledge)

• Want more? See the Wayne Ross and Rich Gibson book • • • Google: dave hill education policy dave hill marxist education and neoliberalism dave hill routledge education and marxism dave hill deb kelsh sheila macrine david gabbard peter mclaren

Marxist work by British Marxists Glenn Rikowski and • Glenn Rikowski by Mike Cole • Mike Cole • Google him and his online analysis • e. g. The Volumizer

Socialist/ Marxist Analysis and Action, and Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy Some is published in online journals such as 1. The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (www. jceps. com) 2. Cultural Logic (at http: //clogic. eserver. org/) 3. Workplace, a Journal of Academic Labor (http: //www. cust. educ. ubc. ca/workplace/) 4. Public Resistance (http: //web. mac. com/publicresistance/i. Web/publicresistance/Public%20 Resi stance. html) 5. Radical Notes (http: //radicalnotes. com/component/option, com_frontpage/Itemid, 1/) 6. In the UK, The Socialist Teachers’ Alliance (http: //www. socialist-teacher. org/) 7. in the USA, the Rouge Forum (http: //www. rougeforum. org/) 8. International Viewpoint (online at http: //www. internationalviewpoint. org/)

Schooling and Equality: Fact, Concept and Policy Dave Hill and Mike Cole Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory by Dave Hill, Peter Mc. Laren, Mike Cole, and Glenn Rikowski

Routledge: Studies in Education and Neoliberalism, 2008… due out over the next few months • Global Neoliberalism and Education and its Consequences • Editors: Dave Hill; Ravi Kumar • Contesting Neoliberal Education: Public Resistance and Collective Advance. Editor: Dave Hill • The Developing World and State Education: Neoliberal Depredation and Egalitarian Alternatives. Editors: Dave Hill; Ellen Rosskam • The Rich World and the Impoverishment of Education: Diminishing Democracy, Equity and Workers’ Rights. Editor: Dave Hill

For more Dave Hill, google • dave hill education policy • dave hill marxist • education and neoliberalism dave hill routledge • the hillcole group • The institute for education policy studies www. ieps. org. uk • Email dave. hill@northampton. ac. uk dave. hill 35@btopenworld. com

Recent online articles by Dave Hill, D. (2007) Education: Their Agenda and Ours. Socialist Resistance, 49. Sept. Online at http: //www. socialistresistance. net/49 resistance. pdf Hill, D. (2007) Socialist Educators and Capitalist Education. Socialist Outlook, 13. Online at http: //www. isg-fi. org. uk/spip. php? article 576 Hill, D. and Boxley, S. (2007) Critical Teacher Education for Economic, Environmental and Social Justice: an Ecosocialist Manifesto. Journal for Critical education Policy Studies, 5(1). Online at http: //www. jceps. com/index. php? page. ID=article&article. ID=96 Hill, D. (2007) Critical Teacher Education, New Labour in Britain, and the Global Project of Neoliberal Capital. Policy Futures, 5 (2) pp. 204 -225. Online at http: //www. wwwords. co. uk/pfie/content/pdfs/5/issue 5_2. asp Greaves, N. , Hill, D. and Maisuria, A. (2007) Embourgeoisment, Immiseration, Commodification - Marxism Revisited: a Critique of Education in Capitalist Systems. Journal for Critical education Policy Studies, 5(1). Online at http: //www. jceps. com/index. php? page. ID=article&article. ID=83 Hill, D. (2006) Class, Capital and Education in this Neoliberal/ Neoconservative Period. Information for Social Change, 23. Online at http: //libr. org/isc/issues/ISC 23/B 1%20 Dave%20 Hill. pdf

• • and…. Hill, D. and Kelsh, D. (2006) The Culturalization of Class and the Occluding of Class Consciousness: The Knowledge Industry in/of Education. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 4 (1). http: //www. jceps. com/index. php? page. ID=article&article. ID=59 • Hill, D. (2004) Books, Banks and Bullets: Controlling our minds- the global project of Imperialistic and militaristic neo-liberalism and its effect on education policy. Policy Futures in Education, 2, 34, pp. 504 -522 (Theme: Marxist Futures in Education). http: //www. wwwords. co. uk/pfie/content/pdfs/2/issue 2_3. asp • Hill, D. (2004) O Neoliberalismo Global, a Resistência e a Deformação da Educação, Curriculo sem Frontieras 3, 3 pp. 24 -59. (Brazil) 2004) http: //www. curriculosemfronteiras. org/ • • Hill, D. (2004) Educational perversion and global neo-liberalism: a Marxist critique Cultural Logic: an electronic journal of Marxist Theory and Practice. Online at http: //eserver. org/clogic/2004. html • Hill, D. (2003) Global Neo-Liberalism, the Deformation of Education and Resistance, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 1 (1) http: //www. jceps. com/index. php? page. ID=article&article. ID=7 • Hill, D. (2003) (second edition) Brief Autobiography of a Bolshie Dismissed. Brighton: Institute for Education Policy Studies. Online at http: //www. ieps. org. uk. cwc. net/bolsharticle. pdf