Journal articles by Konstanze Spohrer
Critical Studies in Education, 2018
In recent years, character education has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in different national c... more In recent years, character education has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in different national contexts. In England, the publication of a ‘Character and Resilience Manifesto’ by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility in 2014 put character education on the government’s agenda, primarily as a means to improve social mobility. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of ‘problematization’, this article examines how ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ are constructed and legitimised through expert knowledges in the Manifesto. We find that by drawing on evidence from psychology and behavioural economics, ‘character’ is predominantly understood as a set of skills and dispositions to be developed in order to boost individual labour market outcomes and wider economic growth. Hence, social mobility is framed a (increasingly) biological and psychological understanding following a logic of human capital enhancement. Contextualising the findings in Foucault’s work on ‘governmentality’ and ‘biopolitics’, we argue that the call for character education is part of a wider intensification of the demand for self-government and self-investment – a demand that is particularly pronounced for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the ide... more Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the idea of ‘raising aspiration’ among young people as a solution to persisting educational and socio-economic inequalities. Previous analyses have argued that these policies tend to individualise structural disadvantage and promote a ‘deficit’ view of working-class youth. This paper adopts a novel approach to analysing aspiration discourses combining Michel Foucault’s four dimensions of ‘ethics’ and Mitchell Dean’s notion of ‘formation of identities’. Applying Foucault’s and Dean’s work in this way provides a new lens that enables an examination of how policy encourages particular forms of subjectivation, and, therefore, seeks to govern individuals. The findings presented in the paper complicate previous research by showing that raising aspiration strategies portray disadvantaged youth both in terms of ‘deficit ‘and ‘potential’, resulting in a requirement for inner transformation and mobility through attitudinal change. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the identity formation of young people and for conceptualising contemporary forms of governmentality.
The need to ‘raise aspirations’ among young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrou... more The need to ‘raise aspirations’ among young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds has been prominent in UK policy debates over the last decade. This paper examines how this discourse is negotiated and contested by teachers and pupils in a Scottish secondary school. Interviews, group discussions and observations were analysed by drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis exposes contradictions and silences inherent in dominant discourses of aspiration, most notably the tension between the promise and the impossibility of ‘success’ for all. It is argued that attempts to reconcile this tension by calling on young people to maximise individual ‘potential’ through attitude change silence the social construction of ‘success’ and ‘failure’. The paper concludes with suggesting ways in which schools could embrace the contradictions underpinning dominant ‘raising aspiration’ discourses and adopt a more critical-sociological approach in working with young people.
Strategies of “employability” and “activation” are increasingly favoured in the European Union po... more Strategies of “employability” and “activation” are increasingly favoured in the European Union policy context. These strategies are aimed at fostering inclusion by stressing the responsibility of the individual to participate in education and employment. Similar tendencies can be observed in the United Kingdom over the last decade, among them a debate on raising young people’s aspirations. The paper reports first findings from a research project on the construction of “aspiration” in and through policy debates in the UK. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of Archaeology and Genealogy, policy documents were analysed for the discursive strategies they employ.
The analysis suggests that the debate on “aspiration” constructs young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as deficient, conflates economic and social equality discourses and individualises structural problems. These discursive strategies mirror tendencies that can be observed in strategies of activation and employability in the UK and the European Union. Focussing on “aspiration” can be regarded as a way to prepare young people for the responsibility to actively pursue labour market participation at an even earlier stage.
Book chapters by Konstanze Spohrer
This chapter analyses the Coalition government's policies on social mobility and social justice w... more This chapter analyses the Coalition government's policies on social mobility and social justice with a focus on widening participation in higher education. The chapter traces continuities and shifts in policies aimed at addressing inequalities in higher education from New Labour to the Coalition. Changes in discourse are examined, followed by an analysis of the Coalition's policy proposals, including reforms of admission procedures and retracting from 'raising aspiration' strategies. The chapter concludes with an outlook to potential developments after the election, suggesting a need for a broader debate on the role of (higher) education.
Masculinity and aspiration in an era of neoliberal education
This chapter provides an overview of existing work at the nexus of neoliberal policy and boys' ed... more This chapter provides an overview of existing work at the nexus of neoliberal policy and boys' education before discussing possible theoretical approaches for future work. In policy today, the term "aspiration" is used in reference to wider debates around raising educational attainment, inequalities in post-compulsory education, and stagnating social mobility. Over the last decade, the global education policy rhetoric regarding "raising aspirations" for young people has become more robust (Allen 2013; Spohrer 2016; Stahl 2015; Lin and Mac an Ghaill this volume). Infused with logics from human capital theory, the focus on the need to "raise aspirations" can also be seen as part of a wider international debate on qualifications and skills, in which buzzwords such as "employability," "work-ready," and "basic skills" abound. Promoting the logic of "learning equals earning" (Brown 2013, 685), contemporary educational policies portray the attainment of educational qualifications as the only way to participate in the labor market successfully. In a context of widespread neoliberal governance, policy makers continue to position "raising aspirations" as a simple "solution" to a range of complex social "problems" (Reay 2013). As an alleged magic bullet to economic viability, "raising aspirations" for young people permeates the social imaginary, classroom relations, and teacher-student relationships. Furthermore, to varying extents, young people come to know these dominant neoliberal discourses and draw on them as 2 they negotiate their educational and employment futures (Allen and Mendick 2012; Giroux 2004). Through an overview of neoliberal policy, in this chapter we seek to investigate the commonalities and links across multiple localities contending with neoliberalism and what this means for scholars in masculinity studies.
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Journal articles by Konstanze Spohrer
The analysis suggests that the debate on “aspiration” constructs young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as deficient, conflates economic and social equality discourses and individualises structural problems. These discursive strategies mirror tendencies that can be observed in strategies of activation and employability in the UK and the European Union. Focussing on “aspiration” can be regarded as a way to prepare young people for the responsibility to actively pursue labour market participation at an even earlier stage.
Book chapters by Konstanze Spohrer
The analysis suggests that the debate on “aspiration” constructs young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as deficient, conflates economic and social equality discourses and individualises structural problems. These discursive strategies mirror tendencies that can be observed in strategies of activation and employability in the UK and the European Union. Focussing on “aspiration” can be regarded as a way to prepare young people for the responsibility to actively pursue labour market participation at an even earlier stage.