In the past years, there has been an intensive discussion on the topic of academic freedom in the university. More precisely, it has been criticized that the university is confronted with a growing intolerance and the request to limit free speech. This contribution takes a case at a German university as point of departure. It shows how the current…

The article presents the results of an analysis of the academic dispute about the scholarly ethos, conducted at the time of intense higher education reforms in Poland. Previous analyses of the academic debate on the change of the traditional university towards its entrepreneurial organization emphasize the polarization, that is, the criticism or…

This paper analyses how the discursive construction, valuation and subjective experience of human capital is evolving in parallel with crises of capital as a world-system. Ideology critique provides tools for analysing policy 'fictions' that aim to sustain investment in human capital through education. Foucauldian analytical tools enable analysis…

The aim of this article is to investigate the impact neoliberalism has in shaping the discourse of the European Union's policy of Lifelong Learning. The literature review initially presents the theoretical framework of neoliberalism as the dominant ideological and economic paradigm of our time. Thereafter, it takes a view on how neoliberalism…

This article examines Catherine Malabou's philosophical concept of plasticity as a new materialist methodology. Given that plasticity simultaneously maintains the ability to receive, give, and annihilate form, plasticity and plastic readings offer material-discursive possibilities for educational research. This article begins by discussing the…

This article introduces Tofa'a'anolasi, a novel Samoan research framework created by drawing on the work of other Samoan and Pacific education researchers, in combination with adapting the 'Foucauldian tool box' to use for research carried out from a Samoan perspective. The article starts with an account and explanation of the process of…

The purpose of this study is to examine Foucault's discourse-oriented theory, his explanation of the power-knowledge relation, his notions of technologies of domination and technologies of the self, and the Foucauldian critique of the assumed neutrality of education and school counseling. The theory that we shall seek to elaborate here puts…

This paper responds to Trohler's charge that my paper "As if by Machinery: The levelling of educational research" takes Francis Bacon's vision of scientific research out of context. I distinguish four senses of "decontextualisation": as ignorance, as belief in "timeless truths", as comparison of contexts, and as genealogy. I argue that Trohler has…

In this article, the authors deal with the question whether the concept of "Bildung" or "cultivation/edification" is still a concept which one can use to analyse and criticise actual developments in the field of education (both in thought/discourse and in action/technique) which are themselves related to broader social transformations often…

In this paper the author argues for the use of Deleuzian theories in educational contexts. In particular, she is interested in the use of the concept of rhizomes, and the analysis of texts as rhizomes, drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's work in "A Thousand Plateaus" (1987). She discusses the possibilities for using rhizomatics in educational…