How Performativity Pressures Distort Care in U.S. and Chinese Classrooms

• In Event: Inclusive Education in Asian Context

Abstract

Neoliberal processes across the globe have led to more standardized curricula, a greater focus on test scores, stricter approaches to discipline and classroom management, and less individualized educational experiences. But how do these neoliberal processes impact the way teachers and students conceptualize care in different classroom settings? In this article, we employ comparative case methodology to explore how teachers and students in two different contexts - no excuses schools in the U.S. and state schools in Shanghai, China – address this question. Our analysis advances caring theory by illuminating a troubling type of care between students and teachers, which emerges in response to performativity pressures related to high-stakes testing.

Authors

• Lisa Yiu, Stanford University

• Victoria Marie Theisen-Homer, Northern Arizona University