Accountability in American Education as a Rhetoric and a Technology of Governmentality

Autor/in	Suspitsyna, Tatiana
Titel	Accountability in American Education as a Rhetoric and a Technology of Governmentality
Quelle	In: Journal of Education Policy, 25 (2010) 5, S.567-586 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0268-0939
Schlagwörter	Equal Education; Rhetoric; Federal Government; Politics of Education; Accountability; Educational Policy; Rhetorical Criticism; Discourse Analysis; Governance; Position Papers; Educational Quality; Efficiency; Educational Opportunities; Political Influences + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Rhetorik; Bundesregierung; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Verantwortung; Politics of education; Diskursanalyse; Education; Financing; Steuerung; Bildung; Erziehung; Finanzierung; Positionspapier; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Effectiveness; Effektivität; Wirkungsgrad; Bildungsangebot; Bildungschance; Political influence; Politischer Einfluss
Abstract	Accountability is one of the most advocated and controversial topics in US education. Since the early 2000s, the federal government has produced a vibrant discourse on accountability, which emphasizes quality, efficiency, and equal opportunity in education. As part of the larger phenomenon of new managerialism, the dominant forms of accountability are currently based on the power of the manager and the market rather than the bureaucratic or professional authority. This study draws on classic rhetoric and the Foucaultian concept of governmentality to analyze the rhetorical construction of accountability in the US Department of Education speeches and examine the role of accountability in governing educational institutions and subjects. The author demonstrates how as a rhetoric, accountability in education operates as a "sacred language" to propagate neoliberal values and how as a technology of governmentality, it works to maintain the neoliberal political rationality, enforce the openness of educational institutions to government oversight, and enable entrepreneurial subjectivities through responsibilization and moralization of consumer-style choice-making. The author argues that centered on the market-oriented forms of accountability, federal education policies have a limited potential for meeting its officially promoted goals, particularly with regard to equalizing opportunity for minority- and low-income students. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10