Page 155 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, no. 1-2: The Language of Neoliberal Education, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 155
povzetki ■ abstracts
ravni odvisno od specifičnega zgodovinskega, političnega in kulturnega
ozadja nacionalnih držav (npr. Takayama, 2009) ter omogoča razumevan-
je, kako neoliberalni kognitivni in normativni diskurz (Schmidt, 2008)
spodbuja nacionalne akterje, da se uskladijo z agendami EU, namesto da
bi zaščitili suverenost nacionalnega izobraževalnega prostora. Teoretska
izhodišča so prikazana na študiji primera Slovenije, ki predstavlja zanim-
iv primer prepletenosti post-socialističnih vrednot in zahodnoevropskega
(neoliberalnega) modela izobraževanja.
Ključne besede: diskurzivni institucionalizem, EU, neoliberalizem, izo-
braževanje, Slovenija
Sarah Hayes and Petar Jandrić
Resisting the Iron Cage of ‘the Student Experience’
As higher education (HE) has come to be valued for its contribution to
the global economy, priorities have been placed on study for a degree to
directly meet the needs of industry. Furthermore, in UK policy, students
have been defined as ‘customers’ by the government since the introduction
of tuition fees. Together, these developments have emphasized the role of
a degree as a consumer ‘product’, purchased to secure future employment,
rather than an experiential learning ‘process’, that continues well beyond
student life. In this paper we examine how the student-as-consumer ap-
proach in HE policy has recently developed into a strong rhetoric empha-
sizing ‘the student experience’ as a package, including leisure, well-being,
future employment and other ‘extras’. A disturbing impression is then
generated, where universities are now delivering a packaged experience of
‘consumption itself ’, to students. To examine such concerns more close-
ly, we analyse a sample of 20 UK university ‘student experience’ strate-
gies, via a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Drawing on
themes from these texts, we question who ‘the student experience’ rheto-
ric really benefits? If a rationalized experience is constructed on behalf of
students, then universities defined by George Ritzer as ‘cathedrals of con-
sumption’ align themselves with any other provider of consumer experi-
ences, where students are trapped within an ‘iron cage’ even before they
set foot in the workplace. Yet, despite a distorted picture that neoliber-
al HE policy discourse may portray, a postdigital understanding of ‘the
student experience’ could yet offer helpful insights into possible routes of
resistance.
Keywords: higher education, neoliberalism, critical discourse analysis, stu-
dent experience, cathedrals of consumption, iron cage
153
ravni odvisno od specifičnega zgodovinskega, političnega in kulturnega
ozadja nacionalnih držav (npr. Takayama, 2009) ter omogoča razumevan-
je, kako neoliberalni kognitivni in normativni diskurz (Schmidt, 2008)
spodbuja nacionalne akterje, da se uskladijo z agendami EU, namesto da
bi zaščitili suverenost nacionalnega izobraževalnega prostora. Teoretska
izhodišča so prikazana na študiji primera Slovenije, ki predstavlja zanim-
iv primer prepletenosti post-socialističnih vrednot in zahodnoevropskega
(neoliberalnega) modela izobraževanja.
Ključne besede: diskurzivni institucionalizem, EU, neoliberalizem, izo-
braževanje, Slovenija
Sarah Hayes and Petar Jandrić
Resisting the Iron Cage of ‘the Student Experience’
As higher education (HE) has come to be valued for its contribution to
the global economy, priorities have been placed on study for a degree to
directly meet the needs of industry. Furthermore, in UK policy, students
have been defined as ‘customers’ by the government since the introduction
of tuition fees. Together, these developments have emphasized the role of
a degree as a consumer ‘product’, purchased to secure future employment,
rather than an experiential learning ‘process’, that continues well beyond
student life. In this paper we examine how the student-as-consumer ap-
proach in HE policy has recently developed into a strong rhetoric empha-
sizing ‘the student experience’ as a package, including leisure, well-being,
future employment and other ‘extras’. A disturbing impression is then
generated, where universities are now delivering a packaged experience of
‘consumption itself ’, to students. To examine such concerns more close-
ly, we analyse a sample of 20 UK university ‘student experience’ strate-
gies, via a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Drawing on
themes from these texts, we question who ‘the student experience’ rheto-
ric really benefits? If a rationalized experience is constructed on behalf of
students, then universities defined by George Ritzer as ‘cathedrals of con-
sumption’ align themselves with any other provider of consumer experi-
ences, where students are trapped within an ‘iron cage’ even before they
set foot in the workplace. Yet, despite a distorted picture that neoliber-
al HE policy discourse may portray, a postdigital understanding of ‘the
student experience’ could yet offer helpful insights into possible routes of
resistance.
Keywords: higher education, neoliberalism, critical discourse analysis, stu-
dent experience, cathedrals of consumption, iron cage
153
