Securing the State through the Production of 'Global' Citizens: Analyzing Neo-Liberal Educational Reforms in Jordan and the USA

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Securing the State through the Production of 'Global' Citizens: Analyzing Neo-Liberal Educational Reforms in Jordan and the USA
Language: English
Authors: Hantzopoulos, Maria, Shirazi, Roozbeh
Source: Policy Futures in Education. 2014 12(3):370-386.
Availability: Symposium Journals. P.O. Box 204, Didcot, Oxford, OX11 9ZQ, UK. Tel: +44-1235-818-062; Fax: +44-1235-817-275; e-mail: subscriptions@symposium-journals.co.uk; Web site: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 17
Publication Date: 2014
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Neoliberalism, Educational Change, Educational Policy, Citizenship, National Security, Global Approach, School Choice, Accountability, Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Social Action
Geographic Terms: Jordan, United States
DOI: 10.2304/pfie.2014.12.3.370
ISSN: 1478-2103
Abstract: From a human capital perspective, schooling has long represented an engine of economic growth, individual advancement, and competitiveness in the global market. In recent years, this theorization of schooling has become linked with articulations of national security in both the Global North and South, as policymakers, private sector actors, and international donor agencies frequently describe economic growth and opportunities for individual advancement as requisites to social and political stability. Lost amid the current US foreign policy discourses about the Middle East is an analysis of how neo-liberal educational reforms in both regions are similarly reconfiguring relationships between the nation-state and its young citizens. In critically interrogating how the sociopolitical work of schooling is articulated in Jordanian and American education policy texts, this article argues that neo-liberal discourses of "choice", "accountability" and "participation" in current regimes of education reform seemingly produce new formations of citizenship locally (national security) and globally (global citizenship). Yet, this reordering of civic relationships serves to reify the (economic) interests of the nation-state and maintain a specific global hegemonic order. However, the article also highlights ways in which peoples' movements in the United States of America (USA) and Jordan are challenging the notions that these policies are merely tacitly accepted by most.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 73
Entry Date: 2014
Accession Number: EJ1047260
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:From a human capital perspective, schooling has long represented an engine of economic growth, individual advancement, and competitiveness in the global market. In recent years, this theorization of schooling has become linked with articulations of national security in both the Global North and South, as policymakers, private sector actors, and international donor agencies frequently describe economic growth and opportunities for individual advancement as requisites to social and political stability. Lost amid the current US foreign policy discourses about the Middle East is an analysis of how neo-liberal educational reforms in both regions are similarly reconfiguring relationships between the nation-state and its young citizens. In critically interrogating how the sociopolitical work of schooling is articulated in Jordanian and American education policy texts, this article argues that neo-liberal discourses of "choice", "accountability" and "participation" in current regimes of education reform seemingly produce new formations of citizenship locally (national security) and globally (global citizenship). Yet, this reordering of civic relationships serves to reify the (economic) interests of the nation-state and maintain a specific global hegemonic order. However, the article also highlights ways in which peoples' movements in the United States of America (USA) and Jordan are challenging the notions that these policies are merely tacitly accepted by most.
ISSN:1478-2103
DOI:10.2304/pfie.2014.12.3.370