Dewey and Possibility: Challenging Neoliberalism in Education

In recent decades, critiques of neoliberalism have been widespread within the scholarly literature on education. Despite the lack of a clear definition of what neoliberalism in education is and entails, researchers from different fields and perspectives have widely criticized the neoliberal educational mindset for its narrowness, lack of democratic engagement, and objectification of educational practices. In this essay, through an analysis of a particular aspect of Dewey's oeuvre — namely, Dewey's commitment to the “unattained” and “wonderful possibilities” of experience and education — I argue that educational neoliberalism should be refuted above all on the basis of its lack of intelligence and professional weakness. With regard to this, I contend that educational neoliberalism, despite its relative sophistication, is but another form authoritarian teaching. Dewey, in contrast, challenged the view of education as a means for achieving predetermined goals, and instead conceived of education as an end in itself, something imbued with the unpredictable space of pure possibility.