Reading Group - Education in the Age of Neoliberalism - First session

Reading Group – Education in the Age of Neoliberalism – First session

Wed 06 Feb, 2013
19:30 - 22:00
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This first session, we have prepared a presentation and discussion. In the other sessions it’s up to you to pick a topic with your group and prepare the whole session.
Presentation & Discussion
In the first session, in a short kick-off presentation we will trace the links between neo-liberalism, globalization and the knowledge economy. We will introduce how higher education became treated as a key economic driver, the political philosophy behind it and the consequences for accessibility to, and governance of higher education institutions. With a focus on global trends but also, more specifically, on the Dutch situation, referring to the following two texts:
Programme
This session we will be doing an introduction about the reading group, a short presentation, followed by a split up into groups which will think about the topics they will prepare in the coming months.
  • 19.15 doors open
  • 19.30 introduction & questions
  • 19.45 presentation & discussion
  • 20.45 break
  • 21.00 group break out session for planning upcoming topics/sessions
  • 21.30 reports of groups and picking dates per group

Reading Group – Education in the Age of Neoliberalism

The new KSU reading group about the ‘Education in the age of Neoliberalism’ – history, resistance and alternatives. Would you like to have more background knowledge about the changing world around you and try and understand it better? Are the mainstream media and your studies no great help? Then this reading group is for you!

For the past three decades our education system has been reformed along neoliberal lines. In this radical economic vision, education was no longer seen as a social good in it self, but as an individual investment. Education became something to buy and sell, a commodity to be traded. The current budget cuts are accelerating this development. Where did this development come from, how was it implemented, and how have students, teachers and staff resisted? What are possible alternatives to this model of education. The answers to these questions are not merely academic in nature, they are an important part of creating our own resistance and alternatives.

We collectively decide which subtopics to cover, by splitting up into groups which will each organise one of the sessions. The reading groups will be in English, and consist of six sessions, held once every two weeks on Wednesday evenings from 19.30 to 22.00 in the book store de Rooie Rat, Oudegracht 65, Utrecht from February 6th to April 24th 2013

This reading group is self-organised and absolutely free. Anybody is free to join. Sign up below.

Purpose / Goals

  • To study topics which don’t get the attention they deserve in regular education.
  • To create a space for critical reflection and discussion.
  • To organize our education in a participatory democratic fashion.

Invite your friends to sign-up for the reading groupInvite your friends via Facebook:

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