Term of Award
Spring 2022
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Elementary and Special Education
Committee Chair
Daniel Chapman
Committee Member 1
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 2
John Weaver
Committee Member 3
Julie Garlen
Abstract
This dissertation will raise questions regarding institutional structures that have perpetuated a hierarchical structure within the school mirroring that of society, the commodification of education, the deskilling of educators, and the deterioration of a democratic education (Giroux, 2008; Harvey, 2005; Saltman, 2012). Using a critical theory framework, this dissertation will expose the ways that neoliberal ideology has justified the need for domination, competition, excessive individualism and accountability; all of which can be accomplished through the use of tracking. Within the neoliberal framework, both teachers and students assume roles of economic beings, of producers and consumers, working desperately to increase their market value (Attick, 2017; Chomsky, 2016, Foucault, 2008). Knowledge is sought for capital enhancement, not for developing the capacities of democratic citizens (Apple and Beane, 2007; Brown, 2015).
Neoliberal ideology denounces that there are in fact alternatives, but one can re-envision public education through employing critical pedagogy that provides all students with equitable educational opportunities within a democracy (Apple, 2006; Freire, 1998). I will argue that teachers and reform efforts must strive to reconceptualize intelligence while expanding our view of what it means to be educated in a United States public school. The tracking structure alone has not led to the injustices within, but instead has normalized them. Reconceptualizing intelligence and increasing dialogue about what it means to be educated are ways to live within the contradictions of theory and practice. We must value free minds over free markets.
OCLC Number
1389527206
Catalog Permalink
https://galileo-georgiasouthern.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01GALI_GASOUTH/1r4bu70/alma9916571650102950
Recommended Citation
Kessler, Hannah L., "Reconceptualizing the Genuis Within: the Intersection of Tracking and Neoliberalism" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2386.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/2386
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
