Three Case Studies of the Language Used to Justify Recent Neoliberal and Neoconservative Curricular Reform
Mots-clés :
neoliberalism, neoconservatism, curricular reformRésumé
The overarching objective of this study is to become more closely attuned to the politics of curriculum by identifying the discursive practices employed by governments to position curricular reform. In particular, this analysis aims to show how the twinning of neoliberalism and neoconservatism has served to justify shifts in curriculum at three North American sites in recent years. Further, using rhetorical analysis as a form of critical discourse analysis, the study demonstrates how discursive tools are used to advance neoliberal and neoconservative values under the guise of a taken-for-granted sense of education’s purpose and role. Rather than an analysis of curriculum documents as texts, this study focuses on government rhetoric describing the rationale for curricular reform so as to better recognize which values are gaining formal power, offer clarity into what is oppressed or ignored, and, ultimately, provide insights into where resistance might be aimed.
Téléchargements
Références
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2020a, August 06). Ministerial order on student learning: Review the standard that sets the vision, values, learning foundations and outcomes for student learning in K to 12 education. https://www.alberta.ca/ministerial-order-on-student-learning.aspx
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2020b, December 01). The guiding framework for the design and development of kindergarten to grade 12 provincial curriculum [2020]: Foreword. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/f3fb3059-fdec-4c62-89b7-a34eb9d33c3c/resource/0a51ffa3-76bf-4f8b-a31c-7481eb2fba5c/download/edc-guiding-framework-curriculum-development-2020.pdf
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2022a). K-6 curriculum renewal: Overview – Renewing focus on essential knowledge. https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-development.aspx
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2022b). K-6 curriculum renewal: Key themes – Applying mathematical concepts. https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-key-themes.aspx
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2022c). K-6 curriculum renewal: Key themes – Practical skills. https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-key-themes.aspx
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2022d). Mathematics K-6 curriculum: Subject overview. https://curriculum.learnalberta.ca/cdn/ciihub/docs/Mathematics%20Subject%20Overview_Final.pdf
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2022e, May 05). Expanding financial literacy programs for students | Élargir les programmes de littératie financière pour les élèves: More students will gain valuable financial literacy knowledge and skills to prepare them for success today and in the future [Press release].
https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=82506D3BA0929-C6AD-E3CE-3FCCA9FE34C2FD06
Alberta Ministry of Education. (2023). More funding for schools to close learning gaps:
Alberta’s government is doubling its 2022-2023 funding commitment to combat learning disruptions in the early grades and address complexity of students’ needs [Press release]. https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=865282FFD2A0F-B8A5-66FF-5F393E8F566227C5
Apple, M. W. (Ed.). (1982). Cultural and economic reproduction in education:
Essays on class, ideology, and the state. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Apple, M. W. (1991). Conservative agendas and progressive possibilities: Understanding the wider politics of curriculum and teaching. Education and Urban Society, 23(3), 279-291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124591023003005
Apple, M. W. (2000). Between neoliberalism and neoconservatism: Education and conservatism in a global context. In N.C. Burbules & C.A. Torres (Eds.), Globalization and education: Critical perspectives (pp. 57-78). Routledge.
Apple, M. W. (2001a). Comparing neo-liberal projects and inequality in education. Comparative Education, 37(4), 409-423. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050060120091229
Apple, M. W. (2001b). Creating profits by creating failures: Standards, markets, and inequality in education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 5(2-3), 103-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110010020840
Apple, M. W. (2005a). Doing things the ‘right’ way: Legitimating educational inequalities in conservative times. Educational Review, 57(3), 271-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910500149002
Apple, M. W. (2005b). Are markets in education democratic? Neoliberal globalism, vouchers, and the politics of choice. In M. W. Apple, J. Kennedy, & M. Singh (Eds.), Globalizing education: Policies, pedagogies, and politics (pp. 209-230). Peter Lang.
Apple, M. W. (2006). Understanding and interrupting Neoliberalism and neoconservatism in education. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 1(1), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15544818ped0101_4
Apple, M. W. (Ed.). (2012). Knowledge, power, and education: The selected works of Michael W. Apple (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203118115
Apple, M. W. (2017). What is present and absent in critical analyses of neoliberalism in
education. Peabody Journal of Education, 92(1), 148-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2016.1265344
Apple, M. W. (2018). Critical curriculum studies and the concrete problems of
curriculum policy and practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(6), 685-690. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2018.1537373
Au, W. (2016). Techies, the tea party, and the race to the top: The rise of the new upper-middle class and tensions in the rightist politics of federal education reform. The Educational Forum, 80(2), 208-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2016.1135378
Babaii, E., & Sheikhi, M. (2018). Traces of neoliberalism in English teaching materials: A critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 15(3), 247-264. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2017.1398671
Bauer, M. W. (2000). Classical content analysis: A review. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image and sound: A practical handbook (pp. 131-151). Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849209731
Bell, N., Tarc, P., Schecter, S. R., Racco, A., & Tang, H. (2023). Hosting early study abroad students in Ontario: Internationalization of education dynamics in secondary schooling. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 202, 112-127. https://doi.org/10.7202/1099986ar
Bialystok, L. (2019). Ontario teachers’ perceptions of the controversial update to sexual health and human development. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l’éducation, 42(1), 1-41. https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/3527
Biesta, G. (2004). Education, accountability, and the ethical demand: Can the democratic potential of accountability be regained? Educational Theory, 54(3), 233-250. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0013-2004.2004.00017.x
Biesta, G. (2017). Education, Measurement and the Professions: Reclaiming a space for democratic professionality in education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(4), 315-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2015.1048665
Biesta, G. (2019). What kind of society does the school need? Redefining the democratic work of education in impatient times. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 38(6), 657-668. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-019-09675-y
Bourassa, G. N. (2020). Postschool imaginaries: Educational life after neoliberalism. Policy Futures in Education, 18(1), 30-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210318765544
Brissett, N., & Mitter, R. (2017). For function or transformation? A critical discourse analysis of education under the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS), 15(1), 181-204.
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Zone Books.
Brown, W. (2018). Neoliberalism’s Frankenstein: Authoritarian freedom in twenty-first century “democracies”. Critical Times, 1(1), 60-79. https://doi.org/10.1215/26410478-1.1.60
Brown, W. (2020). Neoliberalism’s scorpion tail. In W. Callison & Z. Manfredi (Eds.), Mutant neoliberalism: Market rule and political rupture (pp. 39-60). Fordham University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvq4bz15
Butler, J. K., & Milley, P. (2020). Reframing citizenship education: The shifting portrayal of citizenship in curriculum policy in the province of Ontario, 1999-2018. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(83), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.5162
Callison, W., & Manfredi, Z. (2020). Theorizing mutant neoliberalism. In W. Callison & Z. Manfredi (Eds.), Mutant neoliberalism: Market rule and political rupture (pp. 1-38). Fordham University Press.
Canadian Foundation for Economic Education. (n.d.). About us. https://cfee.org/about-us/
Castro, A. J., Kim, Y., & Adu-Gyamfi, M. (2023). Racial and cultural pedagogies in education: A retrospective. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 25(1), 33-49.
Clark, D. (2002). Neoliberalism and public service reform: Canada in comparative perspective. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 35(4), 771-793. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423902778438
Colorado, C. & Janzen, M. (2021). A critical discourse analysis of school-based behavioural policies. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 195, 64-78. https://doi.org/10.7202/1075673ar
Cranston, J., & Crook, S. (2020). Integrate or assimilate?: How the policy discourse of Manitoba’s school partnerships: A guide for parents, schools, and communities enforces hegemonic understandings of parental involvement on recently-resettled refugees. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 193, 2-17.
Enriched Academy. (n.d.). About us. https://www.enrichedacademy.com/aboutUs
Fairclough, N. (2007). Discourse and contemporary social change (Vol. 54). Peter Lang.
Fairclough, N. (2013a). Critical discourse analysis and critical policy studies. Critical Policy Studies, 7(2), 177-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2013.798239
Fairclough, N. (2013b). Critical discourse analysis. In M. Handford & J.P. Gee (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 9-20). Routledge.
Fairclough, N., & Graham, P. (2002). Marx as a critical discourse analyst: The genesis of a critical method and its relevance to the critique of global capital. Estudios de Sociolinguistica/Sociolinguistic Studies, 3(1), 185-229. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v3i1.185
Fore, L. C. (1998). Curriculum control: Using discourse and structure to manage educational reform. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 30(5), 559-576.
Foucault, M. (2008). The Birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Palgrave Macmillan.
Giroux, H. A. (2005). The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Significance of Cultural Politics. College Literature., 32(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1353/lit.2005.0006
Green, E. (2023, April 03). The Christian liberal-arts school at the heart of the culture wars. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/10/the-christian-liberal-arts-school-at-the-heart-of-the-culture-wars
Governor’s Press Office. (2021, June 22). Governor Ron DeSantis signs legislation to set the pace for Civics Education in America. https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/latest-news/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-set-the-pace-for-civics-education-in-america.stml
Governor’s Press Office. (2022, March 22). Governor Ron DeSantis signs Financial Literacy Bill to support Florida’s students. https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/latest-news/icymi-governor-ron-desantis-signs-financial-literacy-bill-to-support-floridas-students.stml
Governor’s Press Office. (2022, March 25). Governor Ron DeSantis signs bill that requires curriculum transparency. https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/25/governor-ron-desantis-signs-bill-that-requires-curriculum-transparency/
Governor’s Press Office. (2023, January 09). Governor Ron DeSantis highlights administration’s major accomplishments of 2022. https://www.flgov.com/2023/01/09/governor-ron-desantis-highlights-administrations-major-accomplishments-of-2022/
Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Hillsdale College. (2021, May 14). Education is freedom: Richard Corcoran [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvujpIator0
Hodge, S. (2017). Teachers, curriculum and the neoliberal imaginary of education. In M.A. Peters, B. Cowie, & I. Menter (Eds.), A companion to research in teacher education (pp. 333-345). Springer.
Junior Achievement Southern Alberta. (n.d.). Home page. https://jasab.ca
Kopińska, V. (2022). Towards an exclusive community? Political shift and changes to the school core curricula in Poland: A discourse analysis. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 54(4), 520-535.
LaGrange, A. (2021, April 21). Seeking feedback on draft K to 6 curriculum. Government of Alberta. https://www.alberta.ca/article-seeking-feedback-on-draft-k-6-curriculum.aspx
LaGrange, A. (2022, April 14). New K to 6 curriculum to prepare students for the future: Setting students on the best path for success. Government of Alberta. https://www.alberta.ca/article-new-k-6-curriculum-to-prepare-students-for-the-future.aspx
Leach, J. (2000). Rhetorical analysis. In Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound (pp. 208-226). Sage.
LearnAlberta. (n.d.). Social studies: Organizing ideas. https://curriculum.learnalberta.ca/curriculum/en/s/sss
LearnAlberta. (2022a, April). Mathematics K-6 curriculum: Subject overview. https://curriculum.learnalberta.ca/cdn/ciihub/docs/Mathematics%20Subject%20Overview_Final.pdf
LearnAlberta. (2022b, May). Science updated draft K-6 curriculum: Subject overview. https://curriculum.learnalberta.ca/cdn/ciihub/docs/Science%20Subject%20Overview_Final.pdf
Lubienski, C., & Yoon, E. S. (2017). Introduction to the special issue: Studying school choice in Canada. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25(36), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.3012
Lynch, R., & McGarr, O. (2016). Negotiating subject hierarchies: Neo-liberal influences on the comprehensive curriculum in Ireland. Educational Policy, 30(5), 721-739.
López, F., Molnar, A., Johnson, R., Patterson, A., Ward, L., & Kumashiro, K. (2021). Understanding the attacks on critical race theory. National Education Policy Center. https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/crt
Meehan, K., Friedman, J., Baêta, S., & Magnusson, T. (2023). Banned in the USA: The mounting pressure to censor. PEN America. https://pen.org/report/book-bans-pressure-to-censor/
Miles, J. (2020). Curriculum reform in a culture of redress: How social and political pressures are shaping social studies curriculum in Canada. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2020.1822920
Neumann, E., Gewirtz, S., Maguire, M., & Towers, E. (2020). Neoconservative education policy and the case of the English Baccalaureate. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 52(5), 702-719.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2019a, April 15). ‘Open for Business’ and ‘A Place to Grow’ new licence plate and driver’s licence to reflect Ontario’s optimistic future: Renewed brand and visual identity to be delivered at no cost to taxpayers [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/51866/open-for-business-and-a-place-to-grow-new-licence-plate-and-drivers-licence-to-reflect-ontarios-optimistic-future
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2019b, August 28). First year investment of Ontario’s four-year math strategy announced: Major commitment to math improvement will promote student success and teaching excellence by going back to basics [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/53479/first-year-investment-of-ontarios-four-year-math-strategy-announced
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2019c). The Ontario curriculum grades 1-8: Health and physical education 2019. https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/2019-health-physical-education-grades-1to8.pdf
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2020a, June 23). Ontario introduces new math curriculum for elementary students: Focus on the fundamentals will better prepare students for jobs of the future [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/57343/ontario-introduces-new-math-curriculum-for-elementary-students
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2020b). The Ontario curriculum grades 1-8: Mathematics 2020. https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fbd574c4-da36-0066-a0c5-849ffb2de96e/3ed76499-9df4-4524-8cc2-3c0010a51811/The%20Ontario%20Curriculum%20Grades%201–8%20-%20Mathematics%2C%202020%20%28January%202021%29.pdf
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2021, December 08). New math curriculum for grades 1-8. https://www.ontario.ca/page/new-math-curriculum-grades-1-8
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2022a, March 08). Ontario modernizing school science curriculum: Improved curriculum to emphasize critical life and job skills, including the skilled trades [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1001722/ontario-modernizing-school-science-curriculum
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2022b). The Ontario curriculum grades 1-8: Science and technology 2022. https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fbd574c4-da36-0066-a0c5-849ffb2de96e/a6136d61-3120-43f0-94a3-5859e0319382/The%20Ontario%20Curriculum%20Grades%201–8%20–%20Science%20and%20Technology%202022.pdf
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2022c, October 20). Province takes action to ensure students catch up: Catch up payments also unveiled to deliver more money into parents’ pockets [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002410/province-takes-action-to-ensure-students-catch-up
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2023, March 10). Ontario Preparing students for jobs of the future: Mandatory high school graduation requirement will empower students with early exposure to technological education and skilled trades [Press release]. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002810/ontario-preparing-students-for-jobs-of-the-future
Parker, L. (2019). Deconstructing growing success: A critical discourse analysis of Ontario’s assessment policy. Critical Education, 10(14), 1-19.
Peters, M. A., & Green, B. J. (2021). Discourses of teacher quality: Neoliberalism, public choice and governmentality. In X. Zhu & H. Song (Eds.), Envisioning teaching and learning of teachers for excellence and equity in education: Perspectives on rethinking and reforming education (pp. 155-170). Springer.
Pinar, W. F., & Bowers, C. A. (1992). Chapter 4: Politics of curriculum: Origins, controversies, and significance of critical perspectives. Review of Research in Education, 18(1), 163-190. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X018001163
Pinto, L. E. (2012). Curriculum reform in Ontario: ‘Common Sense’ policy processes and democratic possibilities. University of Toronto Press.
Polikoff, M., Silver, D., Rapaport, A., Saavedra, A., & Garland, M. (2022). A House divided? What Americans really think about controversial topics in schools. University of Southern California. http://uasdata.usc.edu/education
Ricci, C. (2004). The case against standardized testing and the call for a revitalization of democracy. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 26(4), 339-361. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714410490905375
Rogers, R. (2004). An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410609786
Rogers, R. (2011). Critical approaches to discourse analysis in educational research. In R. Rogers (Ed.), An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education (2nd ed., pp. 1-20). Routledge.
Samuels, G., Samuels, A., & Haas, B. J. (2023). Legislate to (un)educate. In C.H. Bohan (Ed.), Curriculum & teaching dialogue (pp. 51-68). Information Age Publishing.
Savage, G. C., & O’Connor, K. (2014). National agendas in global times: Curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA since the 1980s. Journal of Education Policy, 30(5), 609-630. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2014.969321
Simmie, G. M. (2014). The neo-liberal turn in understanding teachers’ and school leaders’ work Practices in curriculum innovation and change: A critical discourse analysis of a newly proposed reform policy in lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland. Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, 13(3), 185-198. https://doi.org/10.2304/csee.2014.13.3.185
Sokol, M. (2021, July 14). Florida education board approves new school standards. Tampa Bay Times. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2021/07/14/florida-education-board-approves-new-school-standards/
Stanley, W. B. (2007). Critical pedagogy: Democratic realism, neoliberalism, conservatism and a tragic sense of education. In P. McLaren & J. Kincheloe (Eds.), Critical pedagogy: Where are we now? (pp. 371-390). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2013). The price of inequality: How today’s divided society endangers our future. W. W. Norton and Company.
Sturges, K. M. (Ed.). (2015). Neoliberalizing educational reform: America’s quest for profitable market-colonies and the undoing of public good. Sense. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-977-7
United Conservative Party. (2020, July). Alberta strong and free: Getting Alberta back to work. Retrieved from https://www.unitedconservative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alberta-Strong-and-Free-Platform-1.pdf
Virno, P. (2004). A grammar of the multitude (I. Bertoletti, J. Cascaito, & A. Casson, Trans.). Semiotext(e). (Original work published 2001)
Winton, S. (2013). Rhetorical analysis in critical policy research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(2), 158-177.
Winton, S. (2018). Challenging fundraising, challenging inequity: Contextual constraints on advocacy groups’ policy influence. Critical Studies in Education, 59(1), 54-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1176062
Yaden Jr, D. B., Reinking, D., & Smagorinsky, P. (2021). The trouble with binaries: A perspective on the science of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 56, S119-S129. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.402
Téléchargements
Publié-e
Numéro
Rubrique
Licence
© Adamo Di Giovanni, Lana Parker 2025
Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Les auteurs dont les articles sont publiés dans la Revue acceptent les conditions suivantes :
-
Les auteurs conservent leurs droits d’auteur et accordent à la Revue un droit de première publication, les travaux faisant en même temps l’objet d’une licence d'attribution Creative Commons autorisant d’autres parties à diffuser les travaux, sous réserve d’une mention de l’auteur et de la publication initiale dans la RCAPE.
-
Il est permis aux auteurs de conclure des ententes contractuelles distinctes additionnelles en vue de la diffusion non exclusive de la version de travaux parus dans la Revue (p. ex. pour enregistrement dans un dépôt institutionnel ou inclusion dans un ouvrage), à la condition d’inclure une mention de la parution initiale dans la RCAPE.
-
Les auteurs sont autorisés et encouragés à faire paraître leurs travaux en ligne (p. ex. dans des dépôts institutionnels ou dans leurs sites Web) avant et pendant le processus d’évaluation, ce qui peut déboucher sur des échanges productifs et favoriser et faire que les travaux publiés soient cités plus tôt et plus fréquemment
