Teaching the 2008 Presidential Election at Three Demographically Diverse Schools: An Exercise in Neoliberal Govemmentality

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Wayne Journell, Assistant Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: This article describes the disparity in political instruction found in six government classes from three demographically diverse high schools during the 2008 Presidential Election. In general, students from working-class households or those in lower-level classes were rarely given opportunities to discuss politics at a national level or engage in analytical discussions of the election; stodents in middle-to-upper-class schools and those in advanced-level classes were privy to rich discussions of politics on a regular basis. Using Foucault's (1991) notion of governmentality as a guide, these findings are then discussed as symptomatic of a neoliberal approach to education in which students are trained for the presumed roles they will play in the nation's political economy as adults.

Additional Information

Publication
Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association
Language: English
Date: 2011
Keywords
Education, Teaching, Elections, Presidential Elections, Neoliberal Govemmentality

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