In 2021, the government of Manitoba made their plans to reform public education overt with Bill 64. Although the legislation was withdrawn as a result of immense opposition from critically engaged Manitobans, the government did not abandon its neoliberal reform plans. Instead, the spectre of Bill 64 now lingers through a variety of new educational…

In October 2022, New Brunswick Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Dominic Cardy publicly resigned and widely disclosed his disappointment with Premier Blaine Higgs' leadership. Using Cardy's unprecedented public resignation letter as a primary source, this paper explores the inner workings of neoliberal governance and…

A recent global reconnaissance of Christian higher education found a number of key themes that shaped current developments, such as the pressing challenges of secularization and nationalization but also the advantages of privatization and massification. This article provides an update to this older analysis by taking a birds-eye view of trends…

This study examines the changing style, scale, and scope of raising private funds to provide resources for public schools. In particular, we focus on school fundraising, especially the role of discourse in scaling up school fundraising practices to facilitate education privatisation. Drawing from Stephen Ball's policy sociology, and employing…

Austerity has signalled several political and cultural changes in the past ten years. One frequent and highly criticised change has been the increasing privatisation that has occurred as part of the agenda. This has occurred in most levels of formal education. One related, but under-investigated, aspect of austerity has been the feature of privacy…

Using discourse analysis, the author identifies contradictions in privatization discourse in order to highlight how state-based educational reform has used a normative language of student interests to fundamentally redefine the nature of the university's mission and its faculty based governance structures. The author proposes a counter-discourse…

Through increased international student tuition revenue, internationalization provides public Canadian higher education institutions opportunities to offset the effects of stagnant provincial operating grants or earmarked governmental allocations. Pathway colleges, institutions that are either operated by host institutions or as private…

Policymakers worldwide are trying to figure how best to organize, govern, and support their education systems. They must manage multiple goals, such as workforce development, nurturing knowledgeable citizens, and ensuring educational opportunity. Some countries approach these issues with a public investment in teacher professionalization and a…

In 1998 the World Bank published a "Reform Agenda" for higher education in the new millennium designed to accelerate privatization and the restructuring of the academic workforce. Before analyzing the report, I consider how changes in Canadian universities reflect the growth of the "knowledge-based economy." I then provide a…

Sometimes an educational idea is inexplicably adopted around the world with remarkable speed and consistency and in the absence of a proper evidence base or with little regard or respect for teachers, students or learning. This paper examines what has arguably been the most contentious and virulent educational reform of the past half-century.…

Over the past three decades, educators have faced an increasing variety of reform proposals that can best be contextualized as efforts to commodify and privatize public education. While supporters of market-based reforms attempt to place these proposals within education theory, they are in reality firmly entrenched in neoliberal economic theory.…

As austerity measures intensify around the world, the axe has come down particularly hard on post-secondary education (PSE). So-called education "reform" has shown itself to be a lightning rod for confrontation. In order to deal with unprecedented government budget shortfalls, caused, it must be recalled, by the lead agents of the…

This article examines how notions of "child" and "childhood" are produced in relation to recent early childhood policies in Ontario, Canada. It centers on an ongoing shift from Foucauldian disciplinary societies to Deleuzian control societies where it is argued that early childhood subjects (researchers, students, educators,…

In an age of globalization and privatization, local governments and municipalities are searching to define their social role and place. In an aging society such as Canada, arguing that promoting the legal rights of older persons should be part of the legal authority of the municipal government is not simple. It is easier to abide by the position…

Since 2004, a number of Canadian provinces have initiated comprehensive reviews of their respective public post-secondary education systems. This paper examines the ways in which these provincial post-secondary education reviews are consistent with the pervasive influence of economic globalization on higher education and a more market-driven and…