Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T15:44:57.766Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

25 - The Specter of Agreement

A Contractarian Analysis of Market Ethics in Education

from Part II - Ethics and Education in Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Affiliation:
Ball State University, Indiana
Jessica Heybach
Affiliation:
Florida International University
Dini Metro-Roland
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
Get access

Summary

Considering the increasing privatization of public schools in the United States, the authors of this chapter utilize contractarianism to critique neoliberal practices. Textual evidence is drawn on to show the influence of contractarian arguments on neoliberal thinkers such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. After an explanation of the contractarianism of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the authors show that the neoliberal versions of the social contract are both incompatible with the tradition writ large and internally inconsistent philosophically. Rather than a public characterized by privatization, and the undermining of public schools that results, the authors argue for a public in which responsibility, obligation, and freedom are not contradictory terms, and a vision of public schools in which teachers successfully bring about those ethical goals.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Gary, and Cohen, Michael I.. “Redesigning the Identities of Teachers and Leaders: A Framework for Studying New Professionalism and Educator Resistance.” Education Policy Analysis Archives 23, no. 85 (September 2015): 125.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Ball, Stephen J.Neoliberal Education? Confronting the Slouching Beast.” Policy Futures in Education 14, no. 8 (2016): 10461059. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1478210316664259.Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy. Undoing the Demos. Brooklyn: Zone Books, 2015.Google Scholar
Buras, Kristen. Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space. New York: Routledge, 2015.Google Scholar
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “Education.” https://chanzuckerberg.com/education/.Google Scholar
Diamond, Arthur M. Jr.F. A. Hayek on Constructivism and Ethics.” The Journal of Libertarian Studies 4, no. 4 (Fall 1980): 353365.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. “A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” New York Times, September 13, 1970. www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. “Public Schools: Make Them Private.” The Cato Institute, 1995. http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanPrivatizetable.pdf.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. “The Role of Government in Education.” In Collected Works of Milton Friedman Project, 1955, https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanRoleOfGovttable.pdf.Google Scholar
Gauthier, David. “Why Contractarianism?” In Ethical Theory, edited by Shafer-Landau, Russ, 620631. Malden: Blackwell, 2007.Google Scholar
Graham, Patricia Albjerg. Schooling America: How the Public Schools Meet the Nation’s Changing Needs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Hampton, Jean. The Intrinsic Worth of Persons: Contractarianism in Moral and Political Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.Google Scholar
Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen. “Achieving Public Schools.” Educational Theory 61, no. 4 (2011): 467489.Google Scholar
Mirowski, Philip, and Plehwe, Dieter, eds. The Road to Mont Pelerin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract, translated by Victor Gourevitch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Saltman, Kenneth J. The Swindle of Innovative Educational Finance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Servant, Régis. “Let’s Agree Not to Agree: F. A. Hayek’s ‘Calculus of Consent.’” Cambridge Journal of Economics 41 (June 2016): 259281.Google Scholar
Starr, Karen. Education Policy, Neoliberalism, and Leadership Practice: A Critical Analysis. New York: Routledge, 2019.Google Scholar
Vanberg, Viktor J.James M. Buchanan’s Contractarian and Modern Liberalism.” Constitutional Political Economy 25 (2014): 1838.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×