Views from the blackboard: neoliberal education reforms and the practice of teaching in Ontario,Canada |
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Authors: | Sara Carpenter Nadya Weber Daniel Schugurensky |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Adult Education &2. Counselling Psychology , Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto , Toronto , ON , Canada;3. School of Public Affairs , Arizona State University , Tempe , AZ , USA |
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Abstract: | This article discusses findings from two case studies examining the impact of neoliberal education reform on the classroom practice of teachers and adult educators in Ontario, Canada. We asked educators to comment on the impacts of 20 years of policy shifts in their classrooms. Teachers in public schools and adult literacy programmes echoed each other on issues of managerialism, privatisation and punitive accountability mechanisms. Both schoolteachers and adult educators made references to a reduction in autonomy and to an emerging ‘culture of fear’ in educational institutions and programmes. The experience of teachers highlights contradictions between the promises of neoliberalism and the ground-level impact of policy. |
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Keywords: | neoliberalism policy reform adult education basic education classroom practice |
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