Education and the Sharing Economy: How Teachers Pay Teachers Advances the Neoliberal Capitalist Regime

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Marxian Analysis of Society, Schools and Education SIG Roundtable Session

Abstract

This paper takes a philosophical approach to understanding and analyzing how the emerging sharing economy functions in our neoliberal capitalist state and impacts education. This paper argues that neoliberal capitalism accelerates the growth of the sharing economy as a profit-making endeavor, as it supports deregulation, shifts profits to venture capitalists, and creates the illusion of ownership and control for those without wealth. This understanding is applied to the lesson plan selling website Teachers Pay Teachers. TpT fits into the exploitive sharing economy narrative, perpetuates and facilitates social efficiency in teaching, and simultaneously advances the goals of corporate-led educational reforms. Ultimately this analysis is considered within the broader question of if and how schools can transform society.

Author

• Anne Martin, Georgia State University