The Spectre of Neoliberalism : Pedagogy, Gender and the Construction of Learner Identities

In this paper I draw on ethnographic observation data taken from a school-based study of two groups of 12-13 year old pupils identified as high achieving and popular to explore how relations between teachers and pupils are mediated and constituted through the spectre of neoliberal values and sensibilities. Specifically, I demonstrate how certain high-achieving male and female pupils respond to and negotiate competing challenges summoned through the classroom – pushes to be competitive, autonomous and achieve academically, and pulls to court the acceptance of others and become or remain popular. This highlights the pervasive role of neoliberal governance on the construction of (preferred) learner identities and orientations to learning. At the same time, it draws attention to the instability and unpredictability of its appropriation in the context of intersecting dynamics of gender, friendship and popularity. I conclude the paper by considering how neoliberal styles, rhetoric and cultural forms impact on ideas of social justice and possibilities for a ‘critical’ or ‘transformative’ pedagogy in education, namely one that conceives the curriculum and pedagogical practices as responses to the positive contribution of learners