How a view of language underpins approaches to supporting higher education students that facilitate neo-liberalism, and how to resist this

Richards, Kendall; Pilcher, Nick

Abstract

In this article we argue a particular view of language underpins approaches to supporting students in Higher Education, and that this view facilitates neoliberalism. Universities worldwide have glossaries of terms such as 'describe' or 'discuss', and centralised units to help students understand what an 'essay' or 'report' is, and to 'critically evaluate'. This approach to support is underpinned by seeing language as a concrete abstract objectivist entity, separable from any context for analysis and teaching. Such a view is ideal for facilitating neoliberalism and giving it persuasive power, as it underpins arguments to create support that is low cost, applicable to all subjects and students, deliverable by almost anyone, and replicable. Here, drawing on theory and data, we challenge this view of language, and present and discuss examples to show how language is instead an individual subjectivist entity, unique to context and subject. We further show how support for students is undertaken by lecturers through dialogue in the subject context. We argue current approaches to support should be changed to reflect this individual subjectivist nature of language. We therefore resist neoliberalism by questioning the validity of the arguments used to give it persuasive power in its approach to support.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 18, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 18, 2018
• Publication Date: Nov 18, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 29, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 29, 2018
• Journal: Power and Education
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-7438
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 175774381881180
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743818811801
• Keywords: neoliberalism, language, resistance, student support,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1319621
• Contract Date: Oct 26, 2018