TY - JOUR
T1 - Governing teachers’ subjectivity in neoliberal times
T2 - the fabrication of the bonsai teacher
AU - Acuña, Felipe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/4/4
Y1 - 2023/4/4
N2 - This paper interrogates and elaborates on the fabrication of teachers’ subjectivity who work in school contexts governed by neoliberal policies. Theoretically, the conceptual metaphor of bonsai pedagogy is proposed to understand teachers’ processes of subjectivation enacted by neoliberal discourses, policies, and practices. The article aims to understand the relationship between the processes of (de/re)-professionalisation and the subjective experience of malaise, suffering, and sickness lived by teachers in the exercise of their work. Bonsai pedagogy is offered as a complementary category of analysis and interpretation of these processes that is more sensitive to teachers’ subjectivity. The research is based on 35 narrative interviews with Chilean dissident schoolteachers who are members of teachers’ political organisations. I analyse three strategies used by the bonsai pedagogy: i) controlling and saturating teachers’ time; ii) managing and guiding teachers’ practices; and iii) obstructing teachers’ creativity. I discuss how the bonsai pedagogy reduces the capacity of teachers to unfold and construct their subjectivity in alternative ways. Since Chile has implemented neoliberal reforms in education longer than any other country, understanding how neoliberalism operates through and around Chilean teachers can contribute to furthering our knowledge of how teachers worldwide can resist and deal with neoliberalism.
AB - This paper interrogates and elaborates on the fabrication of teachers’ subjectivity who work in school contexts governed by neoliberal policies. Theoretically, the conceptual metaphor of bonsai pedagogy is proposed to understand teachers’ processes of subjectivation enacted by neoliberal discourses, policies, and practices. The article aims to understand the relationship between the processes of (de/re)-professionalisation and the subjective experience of malaise, suffering, and sickness lived by teachers in the exercise of their work. Bonsai pedagogy is offered as a complementary category of analysis and interpretation of these processes that is more sensitive to teachers’ subjectivity. The research is based on 35 narrative interviews with Chilean dissident schoolteachers who are members of teachers’ political organisations. I analyse three strategies used by the bonsai pedagogy: i) controlling and saturating teachers’ time; ii) managing and guiding teachers’ practices; and iii) obstructing teachers’ creativity. I discuss how the bonsai pedagogy reduces the capacity of teachers to unfold and construct their subjectivity in alternative ways. Since Chile has implemented neoliberal reforms in education longer than any other country, understanding how neoliberalism operates through and around Chilean teachers can contribute to furthering our knowledge of how teachers worldwide can resist and deal with neoliberalism.
KW - bonsai pedagogy
KW - Chile
KW - neoliberalism
KW - subjectivity
KW - Teachers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152460924&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02680939.2023.2196954
DO - 10.1080/02680939.2023.2196954
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152460924
SN - 0268-0939
VL - 39
SP - 171
EP - 190
JO - Journal of Education Policy
JF - Journal of Education Policy
IS - 2
ER -