Type of Presentation
Panel submission
Brief Description of Presentation
My talk will explore how discourse, in the form of newspaper reporting, state press releases, and gubernatorial state speeches, problematize public education in Kansas, and how in turn notions of fiscal crisis, both material and narratively cultivated, function to underscore the logic of neoliberalism.
Abstract of Proposal
Discourse analysis (DA) explores the relationships between discursive practices and wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes. In this paper I explore, through a qualitative DA of education reporting in the Topeka Capital Journal (January 2014- January 2016), state press releases, and gubernatorial state speeches, how notions of fiscal crisis, both material and narratively cultivated, function to underscore the logic of neoliberalism. While considering potential context specific properties of local reporting and the cultural, geographical, and historical context of the region, I connect my findings with the larger, scholarly body of work pertaining to these issues. Connecting media language and policy discourse across local and global dimensions adds to a growing theoretical and qualitative understanding of the facets of education restructuring and reform within the framework of the global movement and adds material resources in the form of analysis as tools for educational practitioners and grassroots organizations working to craft alternatives to the neoliberal doctrine.
Start Date
3-26-2016 12:50 PM
End Date
3-26-2016 2:20 PM
Recommended Citation
Kerr, Jessica P., "Discourse and the Logic of Education Reform: A Cultivated Narrative of Crisis in Media Reporting in Kansas" (2016). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 2.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2016/2016/2
Discourse and the Logic of Education Reform: A Cultivated Narrative of Crisis in Media Reporting in Kansas
Discourse analysis (DA) explores the relationships between discursive practices and wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes. In this paper I explore, through a qualitative DA of education reporting in the Topeka Capital Journal (January 2014- January 2016), state press releases, and gubernatorial state speeches, how notions of fiscal crisis, both material and narratively cultivated, function to underscore the logic of neoliberalism. While considering potential context specific properties of local reporting and the cultural, geographical, and historical context of the region, I connect my findings with the larger, scholarly body of work pertaining to these issues. Connecting media language and policy discourse across local and global dimensions adds to a growing theoretical and qualitative understanding of the facets of education restructuring and reform within the framework of the global movement and adds material resources in the form of analysis as tools for educational practitioners and grassroots organizations working to craft alternatives to the neoliberal doctrine.
