CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND NEOLIBERALISM

Authors

  • Katie Fitzpatrick Associate Professor Katie Fitzpatrick is in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education and Social Work.The University of Auckland
  • Darren Powell Senior Lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. The University of Auckland. Auckland, Nova Zelandia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-8918.96638

Keywords:

Physical Education. Health education. Critical pedagogy. Neoliberalism.

Abstract

In this article, we reflect on the possibilities and responsibilities of critical pedagogy in relation to neoliberalism and physical education. In exploring these ideas, we also discuss problems of definition, such as the collapse and confusion of terms like critical pedagogy, critical research, and critical health and PE, as well the problematic positioning of ‘neoliberalism’ in critical scholarship. Although there is a growing body of research that illuminates the nuances and pervasiveness of neoliberal HPE policies and practices – both globally and in specific social contexts – we argue that there is still more work to be done to identify how critical pedagogical work may address (or at least attend to) the effects of neoliberalism. After all, there remains a ‘danger’ that critical pedagogy in neoliberal times may forward, rather than contest, the worst effects of neoliberal schooling and neoliberal HPE.

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Author Biographies

Katie Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor Katie Fitzpatrick is in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education and Social Work.The University of Auckland

She specialises in health education, physical education, sexuality education, critical pedagogy and critical ethnography. n addition, her work encompasses urban education, racialisation, gender and sexuality, the work of Bourdieu, and qualitative (particularly, narrative and poetic) approaches to education and social policy. Katie has published numerous articles and book chapters in these areas, as well as an international award-winning sole authored book (Critical pedagogy, physical education and urban schooling; Peter Lang , 2013), awarded best book by the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport in 2013. She has also recently co-edited a major new international collection on health education in schools with Prof. Richard Tinning at the University of Queensland (Fitzpatrick & Tinning, 2014) Health education: Critical perspectives (Routledge, UK, 2014). She is co-editor of a new book series with Routledge Critical Studies in Health and Education (with Dr Deana Leahy, Monash University; Prof Jan Wright, University of Wollongong; and AP Michael Gard, University of Queensland) . In 2014, Katie was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, which fosters the development of future research leaders in New Zealand by providing funding of $800,000 over five years. Katie's current research programme for the Rutherford is entitled Rethinking Health Education and Promotion: Health Capital and Diverse Youth. Katie's professional background began in the 1990s as a secondary teacher, and subsequently Head of Department, in health and physical education (HPE) in South Auckland, New Zealand. She was appointed in 2004 to the Department of Sport and Leisure Studies at the University of Waikato, where she taught health education and physical education (secondary) teacher education programmes. In 2008, she was also a visiting scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, working in collaboration with Professor Steven Silverman. She joined the University of Auckland in 2010. In 2014/2015, she was the lead writer for the New Zealand Ministry of Education's revised policy on Sexuality Education. In 2017, Katie was awarded a Beeby Fellowship (NZCER) with Kat Wells (Lynfield College, Auckland). Together with three other authors, they produced a resource for teachers: Mental health education and hauora: Teaching interpersonal skills, resilience and wellbeing. (NZCER press, 2018)

Darren Powell, Senior Lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. The University of Auckland. Auckland, Nova Zelandia

Darren's research focuses on the ‘childhood obesity epidemic' and the ways in which corporations (especially those of the food and drink industry) and charities are now re-inventing themselves as 'part of the solution'.

He is also a recent recipient of a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund Fast-Start Grant and is conducting a research project about the impact of marketing health to children in New Zealand.

Darren has published a number of articles, book chapters and videos about these research topics and regularly presents at international and national conferences. He has written a book entitled Corporations, Schools, and the 'War on Childhood Obesity'  to be published by Routledge later this year, and is currently co-editing The Routledge Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies with Michael Gard and José Tenorio Ramirez (University of Queensland).

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Published

2019-11-15

How to Cite

FITZPATRICK, K.; POWELL, D. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND NEOLIBERALISM. Movimento, [S. l.], v. 25, p. e25065, 2019. DOI: 10.22456/1982-8918.96638. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/Movimento/article/view/96638. Acesso em: 25 jun. 2025.

Issue

v. 25, jan./dez. 2019

Section

Focus #1

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