A neoliberal analysis of the grade three Jamaican integrated studies textbook

摘要

This study applies the theoretical framework of neoliberalism, biopolitics, and neoliberal governmentality to the instructional materials found in the Grade 3 Jamaican classroom. This study is phenomenological in nature and serves as a case in point that illustrates how some instructional materials can reflect dominant socio-economic ideology. In particular, my research looks at how neoliberal ideology influences the textbooks that shape the everyday learning experiences of Jamaican students. This work combines neoliberal theory with research on the politics of the textbook to demonstrate how influential learning materials can be and how they are ensconced within socio-economic power relations and dominant modes of thinking. For the purposes of this research the Grade 3 textbook, Macmillan Primary Integrated Studies -- Culture was explored through a neoliberal lens. When examined through a neoliberal framework, it was found that the textbook serves as a neoliberal artifact that actively disseminates free market and economically oriented values that coincide with a larger neoliberal discourse. While there is considerable scholarship on both the politics behind instructional materials (Apple, 1993) and neoliberalism and its implications on schooling (Garcia & De Lissovoy, 2013), my work demonstrates that there is congruence between student textbooks and neoliberal ideology. Moreover, this work speaks to scholarship on Foucault and governmentality studies. My research demonstrates that in its function as a neoliberal artifact, the textbook becomes a technology of power that issues biopolitical controls over the student body with the aim of creating self-governing neoliberal subjects.