The Safetyfication of Education : Neoliberalism, Psychopolitics and the End of Critical Education

This open access book examines the dominance of safety discourses in education and their connection with neoliberalism.

The first part of the book investigates the origins and development of what the author calls the safetyfication of education and the main assumptions that underlie contemporary safety discourses in education.

The second part is based on an ethnographic study which explores the safety practices of four secondary schools in New Zealand. This study involved four senior leaders, 14 classroom teachers, three teacher aids, one counsellor, and 52 students (aged 16-18) and collected data through interviews, focus groups, school documents and observations. The findings show how schools respond to the pressures of ‘keeping students safe’ through ‘well-being washing’ practices, a culture of overregulation of teacher-student interactions, and the externalization/privatization of safety services and programmes. The study also reveals the hidden curriculum of safety practices at schools, its paternalistic underpinnings and individualizing effects. The book highlights the dangerous political implications of safety discourses, i.e. the end of democratic education, and the need to move away from ‘safety’ in our education systems.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Spencer Foundation.