On the Problem of Foundation Skills and the Futures of Work

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72445-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 13, 250 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Reihe: Global Education in the 21st Century

This book provides an analysis of how global capitalism, digital disruption, and new worlds of work have reshaped ideas about language, literacy and numeracy (foundation) skills in a neoliberal foundation skills apparatus in Australia since the 1980s.

The book uses Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to producing critical ‘histories of our present’. From this perspective it examines how these disruptions have transformed what was once a voluntary, not-for-profit community ‘movement’ of education for migrants and marginalised people into a sophisticated government, community, and for-profit training and skills sector which imagines foundation skills learners as choice making consumers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Argent, Garry

Kelly, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Prelude: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Value Proposition of Being Human 1 Garry’s Story: Part 1 2 Garry’s Story: Part 2 3 A Conversation between Peter and ChatGPT: Part 1 4 Garry’s Story: Part 3 5 A Conversation between Peter and ChatGPT: Part 2

1 Developing a Genealogy of the Problem of Foundation Skills 1 Introduction 2 The Changing Nature of Language and Literacy as Foundation Skills 3 The Emergence of Foundation Skills as a Skills Market in Australia 4 Genealogy as a Critical History of Thought 5 Apparatus and Governmentality 6 Our Toolbox 7 Structure of the Book

2 Neoliberal Capitalism and the ‘Problem’ of Foundation Skills 1 Introduction 2 The Emergence of Neoliberal Markets in Australia 3 Globalisation, Flexible Capitalism: Changing Labour Markets and a New World of Work 4 Discussion: Individual Responsibility and the Neoliberal Template for Social Policy

3 The Neoliberal Foundation Skills Apparatus 1 Introduction 2 The Historical Moment of Urgent Need: Policy, Surveys and Mutual Obligation 3 Strategic Function of the Apparatus: Resistance, Regulation and Transcendent Possibilities 4 The Elements of the Apparatus: Characteristics and the Nature of Their Connection 5 The Foundation Skills Apparatus: Debates and Truth Claims

4 Creating a Skills Market: The Marketisation and Commodification of Foundation Skills 1 Introduction 2 Foundation Skills as a Commodity: Students, Funding, Knowledge and Skills 3 Hidden Privatisation: The Victorian Training Guarantee 4 Discussion: Policy Change and Reflexive Governance

5 The Choice-making Learner as a Customer: The Individualisation and Responsibilisation of Foundation Skills 1 Introduction 2 The Emergence of Individualisation and Responsibilisation in Foundation Skills 3 The Impact of Individualisation and Responsibilisation at the Program Level 4 Discussion: The Subjugation (and Responsibilisation) of Socio-Economic Disadvantage in the Foundation Skills Apparatus

6 A History of the Future of Foundation Skills 1 A History of the Present of Foundation Skills 2 A History of the Future of Foundation Skills

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Garry Argent is Lecturer in the School of Education at Deakin University. His research focuses on the foundation skills of adults, vocational education and applied learning in schools.

Peter Kelly is Professor of Education in the School of Education at Deakin University. His research focuses on young people’s education, employment and well-being in times of crisis at the convergence of the sixth mass extinction and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.