(Re)Imagining Educational Ethics for a Post-Neoliberal Future

• In Event: Educators' Decisions, Ethnics, and Responsibilities

Abstract

A deep vein of ethicality courses through much of neoliberal discourse in education that seeks to impart cruel optimism among new educators by positioning them as ethically virtuous saviors who can and should save the children from the ills of public education on their own. This subjectivation exposes educators, especially in schools catering to poor and minority children, to grave ethical jeopardy by continually exposing them to intractable ethical dilemmas. This theoretical paper uses insights on postfoundational ethics from Jean Luc Nancy and Jacques Derrida to explore likely contours of ethics as always-becoming ontology. We contend that such a postfoundational perspective on ethics can offer more hopeful directions to educators to co-construct their own ethical practices in a post-neoliberal future.

Authors

• Ajay Sharma, University of Georgia

• Rachel Ranschaert, University of North Texas