after 10 years of examining the different manifestations of corporatization of the public school system both as an academic and as an activist, i'm quite confident in my perspective of the role of the classroom. your analysis of public education is partially correct--but if that were all the school is capable of it would simply not be as effective a tool of corporate ideology. it would also not have even the most remote potential of effecting democratic change--a potential which it does in fact have. the school constantly straddles these two ideologies, which is precisely why the proliferation of corporate control and the elimination of democratic possibility in the classroom poses such a potent threat to the society (societies) in which we live. you may want to read what some of the more prominent post-colonial theorists have to say about this issue.the visible manifestations of corporatization are of course only manifestations--but they are also points of entry to the broader discussion which is, of course, the role of public education and the way in which it teaches us to conform to an unjust hegemonic society--or, alternately, change it for the better. the visible manifestationsof advertising, especially within the classroom, is also one way in which corporate culture is further legitimized by the education system.
and these rallying points are also effective because they are one method of exposing the degree of consolidation. yes, they are only symptoms, but are effective in initiating a more thorough understanding of the position of the school in capitalist society.
outcome-based education is clearly another method of reinforcing narrowly-determined corporate goals, in the same manner that testing and standardization do. but the fact that corporations produce the tests, and the texts, and the curriculum, and teacher training is also significant--again because it illustatrates the broader agenda.
and it is for this reason that i am trying to track the corporations who are directly involved in corporatizing the system--both inside and outside the classroom. in the work that i do and have done for some time, it is clear that this has been the most effective way of introducing people to the issue of the role of education and how it has been/is being shaped.
