The Media and the Neoliberal Privatization of Education

• In Event: 70.050 - The Media and the Neoliberal Privatization of Education: Understanding, Critiquing, and Resisting Capital's Current Agenda for Education

Abstract

This presentation serves to broadly frame the panel. It begins with delineating precisely what is meant by the term “neoliberalism.” The need to continually forefront these questions when using the term is highlighted by a recent study on the use of the term in academic journals in education. Julie Rowlands and Shaun Rawolle (2013) surveyed 110 articles in peer-reviewed education journals that included “neoliberalism” or a related variant (e.g., neo-liberalism) in their title. The researchers found that “Approximately three quarters of all the articles within the sample provide little or no definition or explanation of neoliberalism, despite the word… appearing in the title of the article” (p. 266). This is problematic because, in reading articles on neoliberalism, it is quite clear that different authors have different definitions of the term. Additionally, Rowlands and Rawolle note that “by using ‘neoliberalism’ in a non-specific way… we are at risk of perpetuating the dominant discourse of neoliberalism rather than disrupting or challenging it” (p. 269). To avoid this danger, and for the more general sake of clarity, we want to take a moment to explain the way that we conceive of the neoliberal era, drawing on work in critical geography and education.
Next, we turn to an example of the use of alternative media to cultivate a movement for democracy against neoliberalism through the case study of Boots Riley. Over the past decade or so, Boots Riley has found alternative media a germane site for building a broad social movement against corporate domination in schools and society. He recognizes more and more citizens across the globe harness social media to learn about developments inside and outside of their social circles. In addition to releasing footage of his concerts, music, and acts of protest on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, Riley has produced blogs, been interviewed in alterative and mainstream newspapers and magazines and television stations, and connected with socially-consciousness artists, student organizers, and academics so as to organize and unite a movement capable of building a new social order. For instance, in 2006, on his former record label’s (Epitaph) website, Riley revealed that U.S. political and economic leaders put in place an “obscure provision of the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act for the purpose of forcing “public schools to supply high

Authors

• Derek Ford

• Bradley J. Porfilio, Seattle University