How a view of language underpins approaches to supporting higher education students that facilitate neo-liberalism, and how to resist this

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12928644
AutoresKendall Richards (0000-0002-2594-8135, autor de correspondencia), Nick Pilcher (0000-0002-5093-9345)
Año2018
Volumen11
Número1
Páginas51-68
Fecha de publicación2018-11-18
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPower and Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1757-7438 • E-ISSN: 1757-7438
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1757743818811801
OpenAlexW2900926223
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas29

In this article, the authors argue that a particular view of language underpins approaches to supporting students in higher education, and that this view facilitates neo-liberalism. Universities worldwide have glossaries of terms such as ‘describe’ or ‘discuss’, and centralized units to help students understand what an ‘essay’ or ‘report’ is, and to ‘critically evaluate’. This approach to support is underpinned by seeing language as a concrete abstract objectivist entity, separable from any context for analysis and teaching. Such a view is ideal for facilitating neo-liberalism and giving it persuasive power, as it underpins arguments to create support that is low-cost, applicable to all subjects and students, deliverable by almost anyone and replicable. Here, drawing on theory and data, the authors challenge this view of language and present and discuss examples to show how language is instead an individual subjectivist entity, unique to context and subject. They further show how support for students is undertaken by lecturers through dialogue in the subject context. The authors argue that current approaches to support should be changed to reflect this individual subjectivist nature of language. They therefore resist neo-liberalism by questioning the validity of the arguments used to give it persuasive power in its approach to support

Cognitive science · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Resist · Sociology · Engineering · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Learning Practices · Philosophy · Psychology

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