Interrogating Neoliberalism and Cruel Optimism in Education

<p>This book is a philosophical examination of the ways in which neoliberalism underpins and impedes public education. It proposes that education’s adoption of neoliberal logic generates a sense of despair amongst educators who often enter the profession with the hope of building a better more just world.</p><p>Drawing on the author’s 27 years of experience as a secondary classroom teacher and engaging with a range of theoretical concepts cultural objects and scenes of violence from her time in the classroom <em>The Radical Potency of Despair</em> renders visible the ongoing harms that neoliberal logic creates for education and educators. The author proposes a new “ruptured fantasy of education” and suggests that it is not <em>hope</em> that ignites educators who keep fighting for education but rather despair. Despair is conceived of as a generative force provoking educators to hold time and space open for pedagogical encounters that interrupt the ongoing instrumentalization of education. The author further conceptualizes a notion of thinking <em>with</em> images as a pedagogical interruptive force. Thinking <em>with</em> images she argues gives students time and space to attend to what they see thus affording them the chance to think <em>differently</em> about the violence of modern society. Such pedagogical interruptions are presented as a refusal of the normative order of education countering present infrastructures that aim to constrain and instrumentalize education.</p><p>A compelling and original volume it will appeal to scholars researchers and upper-level students with interests in neoliberalism and education the philosophy of education critical pedagogy and educational policy and politics.</p>