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Extending Educational Change pp 116–137Cite as

Public Education in a Corporate-Dominated Culture

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Abstract

In this chapter, Heather-jane Robertson critiques the growth of corporate interest and involvement in public education. The chapter pulls no punches. It critiques the trend towards the corporalization of everything, including education.

With extensive exemplification, Robertson describes how the corporate community has dramatically redirected educational policy, reshaped the discourse and language in which policy is conducted, intruded into the curriclum, redirected resources, influenced the standardization and testing movement, developed partnerships seeking to influence the practices of many individual schools, engaged in sponsorships, and other things besides. There is nothing necessary or inevitable, Robertson concludes, about the influence of the corporate sphere on educational change and she urges us to choose, for democracy, how or whether that influence should persist.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professional Development Services, Canadian Teachers Federation, Canada

    Heather-Jane Robertson

Authors
  1. Heather-Jane Robertson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teacher Education, Curriculum and Instruction Lynch School of Education, Boston College, MA, USA

    Andy Hargreaves

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Robertson, HJ. (2005). Public Education in a Corporate-Dominated Culture. In: Hargreaves, A. (eds) Extending Educational Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4453-4_6

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