Making Sense of Mass Education

In this chapter, neoliberalism will be examined in more detail in relation to the ways in which it has reorganised and reconstituted schooling and education. Neoliberalism will be approached from a sociological perspective as the prevailing ‘mentality’ or ‘rationality’ of liberal rule in the West today. From this standpoint, neoliberalism can be understood as a systematic way of thinking about governance that focuses on neoliberalism’s new understanding of the market and its significance for all domains in society, including education. Marketisation will be considered from the sociological perspective as a major ‘technique’ of the neoliberal formula for rule.The chapter will discuss the competitive marketisation of schools; the construction of parents as consumers and teachers as entrepreneurs; and the philosophical underpinning of mass education by the logic of the free market. Of equal importance, it will consider the ‘performative’ character of neoliberalism.