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Student Engagement and Neoliberalism: An Elective Affinity?

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Abstract

In the previous chapter, I showed that higher education is governed and operates in the shadow of neoliberalism. In this chapter, I argue that this connection is also evident when we examine student engagement research and practice. To support the argument, the chapter investigates a number of underlying issues. It first examines on a very general level, whether and how educational research can be connected to an overarching political rationality such as neoliberalism. Second, focusing specifically on student engagement, it asks whether research into this pedagogy has been suborned by neoliberalism. A response to these two issues generates a third investigation: how the relationship between neoliberalism and student engagement can be conceptualized. The answer to this inquiry offers the metaphor of elective affinity. The fourth issue investigated in this chapter focuses on how this elective affinity impacts the practice of student engagement as seen from neoliberal and research points of view.

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  1. Institute of Education, Massey University Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Nick Zepke

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Zepke, N. (2017). Student Engagement and Neoliberalism: An Elective Affinity?. In: Student Engagement in Neoliberal Times. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3200-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3200-4_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3198-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3200-4

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