The Limits of Neoliberal Education: Refraction, Reinterpretation and Reimagination

This chapter considers routes to resistance and reimagination of alternative educational futures to the neoliberal orthodoxy. It develops the concept of refraction, highlighting its constituent parts, and explores the different forms of refraction that can and do occur. It postualtes that there is a need for serious consideration of alternatives to neoliberalism, not only because of the damaging effects and outcomes, but because viewed historically, there are significant questions as to whether we are, in fact, witnessing the terminal decline of the current wave of neoliberal reforms. Moreover, the paper suggests that we should consider whether the seeds of renewlal exist in historical examples of educational altwernatives.