Education and Neoliberal Globalization (review)

For whom do you work and against whom do you work? This is a question that world–renowned Brazilian educator Paulo Freire repeatedly posed. It is also a question Carlos Alberto Torres urges us to ask ourselves as we engage with his most recent work, Education and Neoliberal Globalization. In this book, Torres brings together eight of his essays on education and neoliberal globalization written over a five-year period.

In Part 1, Torres criques neoliberal globalization. In Chapter 1, Torres offers a foundation for his overarching arguments, looking at multiple and simultaneous forms of globalization and how they impact education. In Chapter 2, he critiques the notion of "expert knowledge" and the ways in which it informs World Bank funding of education in the so-called third world. Chapter 3 concerns "No Child Left Behind" as a product of neoliberalism.

In Part 2, he focuses on alternatives to neoliberal globalization. Chapter 4 focuses on the possibilities of teachers' unions to promote the public sphere and public education, while Chapter 5 looks at the prospects for using Paulo Freire's political pedagogy to challenge neoliberalism. The emphasis in Chapter 6 is on the importance of critical social theory to critical intellectuals and educational research. In Chapter 7, Torres asks, "How can … [we] take advantage of transformative social justice learning as a methodology and theory of social transformation?" (p. 93). Grappling with this question, he develops a preliminary theory of marginality, considering marginality as a political position, analytical model, and model of advocacy.

The eighth and final chapter, the only one in Part 3, is an interview with Torres on his life and work as an academic committed to social change. By its inclusion, Torres seeks to illustrate how biography can function as a form of political and pedagogical struggle.

Reminding us that education and politics are inseparable Torres unapologetically offers a powerful theoretical critique of neoliberal globalization. In so doing, he engages the relationship of neoliberal globalization to education, while insisting on alternatives and new possibilities. Beginning with the thesis that globalization "is a contradictory phenomenon full of tensions and contradictions" (p. 11), Torres elucidates how, as a function of neoliberal globalization, educational planning and decision making in K–12 and higher education today, are premised on economic thought, positivism, and instrumental rationality.

Concurrently, humanistic education, pedagogical research, alternative models, and critical perspectives are ignored. Education, in global neoliberal discourse, according to Torres, is put forth as a panacea that will solve all social problems and do all good things for society. Challenging this supposition, he argues that neoliberalism is destructive. It is a way of viewing the world that contributes to human suffering on a large scale, in particular for minoritized communities. Moreover, neoliberal ideals are detrimental to the foundation of public education and democracy.

Making a forceful argument for reclaiming the importance of theory in thinking about reality, Torres challenges the tenets of positivism in educational thought. He defends the contributions and use of critical social theory as a research program and as a human science to understand education, noting that understanding critical social theory in these ways is both timely and useful. In advocating for the use of critical social theory, he makes clear his belief that abandoning certainty does not mean abandoning the quest for knowledge.

Specifically addressing colleges and universities, primarily in Chapters 1 and 3, Torres discusses efficiency and accountability, accreditation and universalization, international competitiveness, and privatization as the four primary neoliberal reforms. He elaborates on increased expectations of faculty productivity coupled with decreases in university expenditures, efforts to streamline academic programs across national borders, and, most prominently, efforts to privatize higher education, using the market to regulate colleges and universities.

Although several of Torres's chapters emphasize K–12 education, the themes he engages throughout the book—how economics drives education, the dominion of positivism in educational planning, and the possibilities of critical social theory—should be important to higher education scholars concerned with social justice and democracy. His discussion of...