This volume examines the role of neoliberalism and its impact on education in South Asia. It contends that education is in a state of crisis across the world. This is reflected not only in the way the state has withdrawn to pave way for private capital but also in the manner in which knowledge and ways of understanding the world are being challenged by manipulation and adverse influences. A process of ‘factoryisation’ is underway as disciplining of human minds and redefinition of the purpose of human existence are being geared to fall in line with the needs of private capital. The book brings together incisive contributions from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal to explore newer possibilities to deal with the educational crisis, and looks at a range of critical themes in education: pedagogy, teacher–learner relationship, teacher education, the state of the university, and policy. Rich in content, critical and insightful, this book will be a valuable addition for scholars and researchers of education and education policy, sociology, public policy and South Asian Studies.

Susan L. Groenke and J. Amos Hatch It does not feel safe to be critical in university-based teacher education programs right now, especially if you are junior faculty. In the neoliberal era, critical teacher education research gets less and less funding, and professors can be denied tenure or lose their jobs for speaking out against the status quo. Also, we know that the pedagogies critical teacher educators espouse can get beginning K–12 teachers fired or shuffled around, especially if their students’ test scores are low. This, paired with the resistance many of the future teachers who come through our programs—predominantly White, middle-class, and happy with the current state of affairs—show toward critical pedagogy, makes it seem a whole lot easier, less risky, even smart not to “do” critical pedagogy at all. Why bother? We believe this book shows we have lots of reasons to “bother” with critical pe- gogy in teacher education, as current educational policies and the neoliberal discourses that vie for the identities of our own local contexts increasingly do not have education for the public good in mind. This book shows teacher educators taking risks, seeking out what political theorist James Scott has called the “small openings” for resistance in the contexts that mark teacher education in the early twenty-first century.

An introduction to critical pedagogy for all those working within higher education. Critical Pedagogy is an approach that is fundamentally democratic, informal, non-hierarchical, determined by participants, privileges the oppressed and their perspectives and is committed to action. Higher education (HE), conversely, is often un-democratic, formal, hierarchical, determined by tutors and national bodies, re-inscribes existing privileges and is distant from lived experience. The book starts from the premise that critical pedagogies are possible in HE, while recognising the tensions to be ameliorated in trying to enact them. It re-examines the concept and explores its practical application at an institutional level, within the curriculum, within assessment, through learning and teaching and in the spaces in-between. The Critical Practice in Higher Education series provides a scholarly and practical entry point for academics into key areas of higher education practice. Each book in the series explores an individual topic in depth, providing an overview in relation to current thinking and practice, informed by recent research. The series will be of interest to those engaged in the study of higher education, those involved in leading learning and teaching or working in academic development, and individuals seeking to explore particular topics of professional interest. Through critical engagement, this series aims to promote an expanded notion of being an academic – connecting research, teaching, scholarship, community engagement and leadership – while developing confidence and authority.

Presenting cutting-edge research from around the world, this book demonstrates how critical pedagogy is shaped by social-political contexts and ideological constructions of knowledge and power. The edited collection brings together a global author team using critical pedagogy to synthesise political and theoretical ambitions with the complex realities of classroom practice. The book addresses two key questions: what does critical pedagogy look like in educative work with young people around the globe? And how can critical praxis enacted in schools and classrooms push the core tenets of critical pedagogy so that they are more responsive to the complex power relations of the real world? Bringing together chapters that create a nuanced understanding of some of the challenges involved in the intersection of ideologies, systems and institutions, the authors offer a set of resources which respond to claims that critical pedagogy is often little more than emancipatory rhetoric with limited practical application. Spanning almost two decades of pedagogical thinking, practice, outreach, community development and activism, this robust volume will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students investigating critical education, curriculum, creative thinking and pedagogies.

Based in a holistic exposition and appraisal of Gramsci’s writings that are of relevance to education in neoliberal times, this book--rather than simply applying Gramsci's theories to issues in education--argues that education constitutes the leitmotif of his entire oeuvre and lies at the heart of his conceptualization of the ancient Greek term hegemony that was used by other political theorists before him. Starting from this understanding, the book goes on to compare Gramsci's theories with those of later thinkers in the development of a critical pedagogy that can confront neoliberalism in all its forms.

This edited volume, now in its second edition, brings together the some of the most important figures in the evolution of Critical Pedagogy and a number of up-and-coming scholars. Together they provide comprehensive analyses related to the struggles against the triangulation of Neoliberalism, Conservatism, and Nationalism, not just in education but in all of social life, through the democratizing forces of critical pedagogy. Its re-release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paulo Freire’s landmark publication, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The second edition has been updated with a majority of new chapters to address the current political shifts that have hastened erosion of the public sphere and public education today. These critical pedagogues show how neoliberal attacks can be collectively resisted, challenged, and eradicated especially by those of us teaching in schools and universities.

This book offers an important critique of the ways in which mainstream education contributes to perpetuate an inherently unjust and exploitative Development model. Instead, the book proposes a new anarchistic, postdevelopmental framework that goes beyond Development and schooling to ask what really makes a meaningful life. Challenging the notion of Development as a win-win relationship between civil society, the state and the private sector, the book argues that Development perpetuates a hierarchical world order and that the education system serves to reinforce and re-legitimise this unequal order. Drawing on real-life examples of ‘unschooling’ and ‘self-designed learning’ in India, the book demonstrates that more autonomous approaches such as these can help to fundamentally challenge dominant ideas of education, equality, development and what it means to lead meaningful lives. The interdisciplinary approach pursued in this book makes it perfect for anyone with interests across the areas of education, development studies, radical political theory and philosophy.

This edited collection combines quantitative content and critical discourse analysis to reveal a shift in the rhetoric used as part of the neoliberal agenda in education. It does so by analysing, uncovering, and commenting on language as a central tool of education. Focussing on vocabulary, metaphors, and slogans used in strategy documents, advertising, policy, and public discourse, the text illustrates how concepts such as justice, opportunity, well-being, talent, and disadvantage have been hijacked by educational institutes, governments, and universities. Showing how neoliberalism has changed discourses about education and educational policy, these chapters trace issues such as anti-intellectualism, commercialization, meritocracy, and an erasure of racial difference back to a contradictory growth in egalitarian rhetoric. Given its global scope, this volume offers a timely intervention in the studies of neoliberalism and education by developing a holistic vision of how the language of neoliberalism has changed how we think about education. It will prove to be an essential resource for scholars and researchers working at the intersections of education, policymaking, and neoliberalism.

This book has two primary goals: a critique of educational reforms that result from the rise of neoliberalism and to provide alternatives to neoliberal conceptions of education problems and solutions. A key issue addressed by contributors is how forms of critical consciousness can be engendered thought society via schools, that is, paying attention to the practical aspects of pedagogy for social transformation and organizing to achieve a most just society.