Neoliberalizing Subjects through Global ELT Programs

Abstract

A recent surge in textbooks studies has revealed a closer link with neoliberalism and the way they construct neoliberal subjects. This paper uses Foucauldian governmentality as the conceptual lens to analyze the neoliberal discourses in EFL textbooks used in English Access Microscholarship (EAM)—one of the US‐aided global ELT programs in Pakistan. English language learners' views on course outcomes and textbooks were also examined. The study shows that among others, English as a neoliberal life skill, celebrity culture, consumerism, entrepreneurship, and individual and corporate social responsibility dominate textbooks. It is thus found that textbooks play an important role in neoliberalizing learners. Moreover, English language learners perceive English as a key to economic success. They also value consumerism, branding, and personal responsibility. In light of the study findings, we suggest a decolonial option, reflective activism, and post‐method pedagogy as possible alternatives at the micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐levels to resist the discourses of neoliberalism and colonial power patterns entrenched in a postcolonial society like Pakistan.

Whose English gets paid off?—Neoliberal discourses of English and ethnic minority students’ subjectivities in China

“…Pastoral care as one of the ancient technologies of governmentality for Christians has later been well incorporated into the liberal manner of modern nation-state government, particularly the neoliberal way of governing since the 1980s (Foucault, 1988). Under neoliberal governmentality, the old technologies of self, aligning paradoxically with the neoliberal principles of self-responsibility and self-regulation, are enacted by individuals to mold themselves into entrepreneurs (e.g., Shah et al, 2023). These self-technologies and practices, on the one hand, reflecting market capitalist logic and values, would be very likely to contribute to the misrecognition of wider structures of inequality (Pérez-Milans & Guo, 2020).…”

“…These self-technologies and practices, on the one hand, reflecting market capitalist logic and values, would be very likely to contribute to the misrecognition of wider structures of inequality (Pérez-Milans & Guo, 2020). On the other hand, self-technologies, if navigated with criticality and reflective activism, may help counter the neoliberal hegemony and point to possible social shifts (Shah et al, 2023). The analysis would see to the technologies of self Uyghur students exercised, the way these technologies shape their minds, actions, attitudes and social relations, and how these self-technologies contribute to reinforcing or dismantling neoliberal governance.…”

“…Qualities like active integration and openmindedness were celebrated and spread in conversations. In this sense, community engagement and conversations if properly navigated and deeply reflected may point to the promise of alternative ways of meaning-making and social relations (Shah et al, 2023).…”

“…An emerging body of research has examined the way institutional or individual subjectivities are molded and remolded under neoliberalized English language education across diverse contexts (e.g., Jahan & Hamid, 2019;Martín Rojo, 2020;Ng, 2019;Shah et al, 2023;Sunyol & Codó, 2020). For example, Jahan and Hamid's (2019) study on the discursive construction of elitism in Englishmedium instruction (EMI) versus Bangla-medium instruction under the influence of neoliberalism showed that the newly emerging elite subjectivity was constituted by the changing discourses of elitism associated with the self-achievement of qualifications and individual attributes rather than inherited social prestige.…”

“…English language education, therefore, constitutes an important and complex terrain for examining social differences, categorization, and subjectification. Compared with large bodies of research conducted in other neoliberalized contexts like South Korea (e.g., Park, 2017) and South Asian countries (e.g., Jahan & Hamid, 2019;Shah et al, 2023), relatively few studies have been conducted in China through the sociolinguistic lens, with the following being the prominent ones (Gao, 2019;Pérez-Milan, 2013;Pérez-Milan & Guo, 2020).…”