This article investigates some of the ways in which neoliberalism and mainstream psychology intersect to maintain a dominant episteme in psychology education within the Australian context. It is argued that the ubiquity and logic of neoliberalism and the philosophical inclination of mainstream psychology create a “culture of positivism” and epistemic deceit within psychology education. Some of the features of psychology as it has developed in Australia are offered to more clearly define what mainstream psychology is, before outlining the current regulatory, political, and economic forces shaping psychology education and the neoliberal university. The article concludes by proposing some of the consequences for a psychology education system that does not interrogate the origins of epistemic power and proposes that a greater focus on epistemological ethics and historical–hermeneutic elements in psychology education may offer some resistance to the neoliberal episteme.
The experiences of 1.5 and second-generation children of immigrants are often conflated with those of first-generation migrants or collapsed as homogenous within the category of generational status. In this article, we suggest that these young people occupy a unique ontological position from and through which they navigate their life world and negotiate contexts that shape and constrain their subjectivities. Informed by dialogical approaches the current study sought to understand the dynamics of identity and belonging for ethnicized and racialized 1.5 and second generations in Australia. Data analysis of semistructured interviews conducted with 17 young people who are 1.5 and second-generation individuals lead to the construction of two key themes that capture the dynamics of identity and belonging. The main themes are (a) dialogs of otherness and belonging and (b) agentic border crossing. The findings provide insight into the unique experiences of these young people who often have a border consciousness that enables them to discern the dynamics of difference in their negotiation of everyday settings. The findings also shed light on the emotional and interpretive labor involved in navigating various spaces and contexts that continued to be saturated with essentialist and homogenous understandings of ethnic and multicultural identities. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of discourses of race and whiteness that continue to shape experiences of various diasporas in minority world contexts.
The status quo of many not-for-profit organisations is well-intentioned service provision often coupled with an absence of critical understanding sustained by the restricting nature of neoliberal bureaucracy and funding. In this context, programs aimed at assisting young people from marginalised communities can become mired in individualistic thinking that constrains the space of possibilities for young people through depoliticisation and decontextualization of their realities and thus the kinds of subjectivities available to them. The challenge for the evaluation we discuss in this paper was not only to evaluate the outcomes of the program, but to promote community narratives about the realities for young racialized people in Australia that counter majoritarian stories. We conclude that social change begins within the multidirectional relationships and contact zones of the stakeholders, participants and researchers of youth programs. This means, extending the focus beyond generic youth development and moving toward engaging young people in critical social analysis and empowering them as future social change agents in their communities.
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