Encountering friction between liberal and neoliberal discourses of citizenship: A non-governmental organization’s entrepreneurship education in Tanzania

Abstract

Educating for citizenship is increasingly situated within the tension of ensuring social, political, and civil rights while also promoting participation in the global market. The literature and practice on educating for citizenship often assumes a liberal perspective with attention to political and civil rights. A growing body of literature shows how neoliberal ideas and values of individual responsibility, empowerment, and participation in the market economy are increasingly influencing education for citizenship. This article draws on data from a non-governmental organization's entrepreneurship education program in Tanzania that aims to foster both rights and skills development for employment in a global market. Using Tsing's idea of friction, I uncover the productive possibilities between these different discourses to show how local meanings of educating for citizenship are emerging to include those who are socially marginalized, to attend to material needs, and to foster new social and political identities among Tanzanian youth.

Listening to Leaders

“…Leaders were found to promote, motivate, enable, resource and create networks with businesses and support programmes that support entrepreneurship (Hämäläinen et al, 2018;Kirkley, 2017;Lee et al, 2015). The literature review also found there were concerns that entrepreneurship education practice would advance a neoliberal agenda to burden the individual rather than society with economic responsibility (DeJaeghere, 2014;Korhonen et al, 2012;Norberg, 2016) (Hardie et al, 2022a). In schools that had created an entrepreneurial culture, leaders maintained a clear vision for entrepreneurship education and ensured teachers knew the value of the innovations introduced (Hämäläinen et al, 2018;Kirkley, 2017;Lee et al, 2015).…”

A Capability Approach to Entrepreneurship Education: The Sprouting Entrepreneurs Programme in Rural South African Schools

“…The Sprouting Entrepreneurs approach aims at supporting the development of competences that prepare learners to secure their own livelihoods and to critically engage as change-makers in the economic, social and political transformation of South Africa. Thus, entrepreneurship competence is seen as a property of citizenship (DeJaeghere, 2014). The programme follows a wide approach to entrepreneurship education that reaches beyond the realm of business development and financial value.…”

“…Entrepreneurship education has been criticised for the promotion of livelihood creation in the acceptance of insufficient support from the state (DeJaeghere & Baxter, 2014). It has been scrutinised as a manifestation of neoliberalism that uses education to bring the idea of citizenship and young peopleís lives into the realm of the market (Harvey, 2005;Komulainen, Naskali, Korhonen, & Keskitalo-Foley, 2011;DeJaeghere, 2014).…”

“They do treat us as a bit normal now”: Students’ experiences of liminality and communitas whilst volunteering on a sports-based outreach project

“…To this effect, the project of neoliberalism that permeates Western educational frameworks conveys to students the interrelated yet contradictory messages of civic responsibility juxtaposed with economic individualism (DeJaeghere, 2014). To elaborate, Holdsworth and Brewis (2014: 205) state that such pervasive policy discourse emphasises ‘students’ self-responsibility for employability and community cohesion’.…”

“…To elaborate, Holdsworth and Brewis (2014: 205) state that such pervasive policy discourse emphasises ‘students’ self-responsibility for employability and community cohesion’. The embedding of student volunteering and service learning into HE institutional practice evinces how the neoliberal ideas of citizenship, individual responsibility and personal engagement with the market economy have influenced university and college curricula (DeJaeghere, 2014). That is, universities are more readily offering work-related and service-learning opportunities as built-in components of their programmes to gain a market advantage when recruiting students (Dean, 2014).…”