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By considering Shakespeare's dramatisation of the principles that inform neoliberal education policy, this book aims to contribute to debate on the moral failure of the market mechanism in our schools and higher education system today, and to offer Shakespeare's humanism as a corrective to neoliberal ideology.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Entrepreneurial risk:
Hamlet 2. Performativity:
Measure for Measure 3. School Leadership:
Macbeth 4. Rational choice:
Antony and Cleopatra 5. Commodification:
King Lear 6. Knowledge:
The Tempest Conclusion Plot Summaries
About the author
Sophie Ward is Lecturer in the School of Education, Durham University, UK. She is a member of the UK team within the European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL), which has recently secured funding from the EU for the next stage of research into developing an English Action Plan on School Leadership. The project is due for completion in March 2015.
Summary
By considering Shakespeare’s dramatisation of the principles that inform neoliberal education policy, this book aims to contribute to debate on the moral failure of the market mechanism in our schools and higher education system today, and to offer Shakespeare’s humanism as a corrective to neoliberal ideology.
Additional text
‘Using Shakespeare's Plays to Explore Education Policy Today is a lucid, well–informed and compelling account of the philosophical basis for market–based social policy in the field of education. In a bold challenge to contemporary orthodoxies in contemporary, market based political economy, Sophie Ward uses strong readings of Shakespeare’s plays to discover the deep contradictions in this philosophy in order to reveal its dehumanizing effect on both students and teachers. Dr. Ward’s book will be indispensable for anyone concerned with the current state of educational policy, a readership that includes everyone now engaged with teaching and research on Shakespeare.’
Michael D. Bristol, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, McGill University, Canada
