Governing through parents: a genealogical enquiry of education policy and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in England

Olmedo, Antonio; Wilkins, Andrew

doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1130026

Cited by 54 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…These micro‐technologies enable the state to ‘govern at a distance’ (Rose, 1999b). Operating in multiple settings and through multiple authorities, liberal rule is accomplished by heterarchical modes of governance that aim to ‘strategically influence others’ agendas and internal processes of decision‐making, while avoiding the need to become directly involved in their “raw operations”’ (Olmedo & Wilkins, ). This mode of governance is epitomised by the behaviour change agenda in UK politics; in particular, the prominence of ‘nudge’ (Thaler & Sunstein, ; Jones et al ., ).…”

Section: Governing the Familymentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing through trust: Community‐based link workers and parental engagement in education

Fretwell

Osgood

O'Toole

et al. 2018

British Educational Res J

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This article seeks to further understandings of contemporary patterns of parental government. It explores the politicisation of family life by examining a pilot programme tasked with enhancing parental engagement in education amongst ‘hard‐to‐reach’ families within the white British community of a large inner‐London borough. Focusing on the programme's signature device—the deployment of community‐based ‘link workers’ to bridge home and school—‘governmentality’ is used as a theoretical lens through which to foreground the link workers’ role in governing parents. We draw on qualitative data collected from link workers, parents and school leaders, to argue that link workers represent a mode of governmentality that privileges the instrumental use of trust to achieve strategic objectives, rather than coercive authority. The aim is to produce responsible, self‐disciplined parents who act freely in accordance with normative expectations as to what constitutes ‘good’ parenting and effective parental support. As such, the article highlights the link workers’ role in (re)producing the ideal, neoliberal parent. However, governing through trust comes at the cost of being unable to firmly secure desired outcomes. We thereby conclude that this gentle art of parental government affords parents some latitude in resisting institutional agendas.

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Section: Governing the Familymentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing through trust: Community‐based link workers and parental engagement in education

Fretwell

Osgood

O'Toole

et al. 2018

British Educational Res J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This has been driven by the increasingly competitive, differentiated and credentialised nature of education and the labour market. Rising numbers of parents are responding to the neoliberal injunction that they behave as consumers in education markets by purchasing private tuition, exerting that which is cast as moral agency to calculate what is best for their child and pursue competitive advantage for them (Olmedo & Wilkins, ; Doherty & Dooley, ). Young people too have been responsibilised, and growing numbers respond to the internalised imperative to pass key examinations by willingly participating in private tuition (Entrich, ; Pimlott‐Wilson, ).…”

Section: Introduction: Education Markets and The Supplementary Educatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marketising private tuition: Representations of tutors’ competence, entrepreneurial opportunities and service legitimation in home tutoring business manuals

Holloway

Pimlott‐Wilson

2019

British Educational Res J

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Education researchers have explored the marketisation of schools resulting from neoliberal education policy, but little attention has been paid to supplementary education markets. Supplementary education services, such as private tuition, are delivered outside of school but designed to improve performance within it. A small body of research demonstrates that the private tuition market in the UK and the USA is burgeoning, and that students' access to this service is differentiated by region, class and ethnicity. These emerging demand-side analyses are vital, but they cannot tell us about the educational entrepreneurship that shapes the supply of private tutoring services. This article addresses this lacuna through a discourse analysis of manuals, published as part of the developing tutoring support industry, that are designed to guide would-be entrepreneurs through the establishment of a private tuition business. This analysis excavates manuals' treatment of: tutors' motivation to work in the sector and their competence to do so; strategies to be employed in the marketisation of tuition services; and the need to build trust to ensure business legitimation in an unregulated industry. In conclusion, the article sets a new agenda for research into fast-developing supplementary education markets that explores: (i) the dynamics of this expanding educational workforce of private tutors; (ii) the ways marketisation addresses and augments parental anxiety about children's education; and (iii) the need for safeguarding and quality control in private tuition.

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“…We note first that P4E and Ontario's successive governments mobilized a partially-shared argument about fees and fundraising, that is, that the government should provide the basic resources needed for learning in public schools. Funding the basic necessities helps to give the appearance that the government is providing all students with an equal opportunity for success while facilitating market conditions, an important role for governments under neoliberalism (Olmedo & Wilkins, 2016). As Naidoo (2016b) explains, the appearance of a level playing field legitimizes competition.…”

Section: Changes Continuances Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Forms of governance include but are not limited to governments, and they have consequences for subjects and the social world (Brown, 2006). While calling for reduced government budgets (Klees, 2008), neoliberalism sees the state's role as facilitating market conditions, attitudes, and behaviour (Brown, 2006;Olmedo & Wilkins, 2016).…”

Section: Neoliberalism and Ontario's Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy advocacy, inequity, and school fees and fundraising in Ontario, Canada

Winton

Milani

2017

EPAA

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Fundraising and collecting fees are ubiquitous in Ontario, Canada's public schools. Critics assert that these practices perpetuate and exacerbate inequities between schools and communities. In this article we present findings from a critical policy analysis of an advocacy group's efforts to change Ontario's fees and fundraising policies over the past two decades. Rhetorical analyses of 110 texts finds that the group constructed the problem of each policy similarly, targeted the same audiences, and utilized many of the same strategies to appeal to logos,

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Governing through parents: a genealogical enquiry of education policy and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in England

Cited by 54 publications

References 33 publications

Governing through trust: Community‐based link workers and parental engagement in education

Governing through trust: Community‐based link workers and parental engagement in education

Marketising private tuition: Representations of tutors’ competence, entrepreneurial opportunities and service legitimation in home tutoring business manuals

Policy advocacy, inequity, and school fees and fundraising in Ontario, Canada

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