Description
Resisting the Neoliberal University: Situating Resistance in Critical Pedagogy
Justin Harmon (Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Therapeutic Recreation at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA), Joe Cole (Assistant Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA), Daniel Rhodes (Director of the Undergraduate Social Work Programme at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA) & Jeremy A Rinker (Editor, JTPP)
Concerned with the ever-encroaching market mentality into higher education, four faculties from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA sat down to discuss their concerns about the neoliberalisation of the university.
Both in terms of how it has affected the student body, as well as their own pedagogy and scholarship, these professors address the contemporary use of ‘neoliberalism’, including the baggage it carries; the slow tide of students seeing themselves as customers over engaged learners; the alienating aspects of online ‘education’; and the general commodification and consumer mentality of the total college experience, where everything has a price—including the value of knowledge and the people who seek to build it.
Permeating through the dialogue is the pressing concerns related to mental health for students, and the impact that market driven ideology has on their wellbeing. The conversation seeks to stimulate others across the globe about the need to take back public higher education from the corporate orbit.
