Creating Neoliberal Subjects: Ideologies of Language and Literacy in U.S. and Canadian Curricula

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Cross-Cultural Explorations in Language and Literacies

Abstract

Comparing contemporary curricular documents from the US and Canada, this analysis highlights some of the ways in which education policy documents participate in the social processes of constructing social subjects and schools in the broader context of global neoliberal education reforms. Combining attention to both macro- and micro-level dimensions of the curricula, this paper focuses on ideologies of language and literacy in official, publicly available educational policy documents related to British Columbia’s New Curriculum (BCNC) and to the US’s Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As this analysis shows, both curricula position students as neoliberal subjects, although this positioning is discursively accomplished through the articulation of rather different ideologies of language and literacy. Implications for educators and researchers are discussed.

Authors

• Meghan Corella, The University of British Columbia

• Bong-gi Sohn, Simon Fraser University