Educational perversion and global neo-liberalism: a Marxist critique.

This paper situates the increasing inequality in and between education, economic and social systems within the policy context of neo-liberal capitalism. Neo-liberal capitalism is a global phenomenon--restructuring of schooling and education has taken place internationally under pressure from international capitalist organisations and compliant governments. The effects of neo-liberal policies in increasing inequalities globally and nationally, in diminishing democratic accountability and in stifling critical thought is presented along with a critique of the theory of neo-liberalism in education policy--in particular how the marketisation of education has perverted the goals, motivations, methods, standards of excellence and standards of freedom in education. While the intrusion of capital into education threatens to undermine one of the best sites for its contestation there are various other arenas of resistance for cultural works to engage and these are briefly described.