English in a Neoliberal Age: (Re)shaping Subjectivities

The system of norms that constitutes neoliberal imaginaries has permeated almost every aspect of everyday life. While New Zealand has long embraced neoliberal educational policies, reshaping its approach to English teaching in a manner similar to other Australasian and Western nations, the country now stands on the brink of an intensified neoliberal shift. Over the past two years, the English teaching profession in New Zealand has observed a gradual increase in neoliberal rhetoric, signalling an acceleration of these principles. As New Zealand’s English teaching sector prepares for this amplified neoliberal influence, it becomes crucial to examine the experiences of other Anglophone nations that have already been led by similar imaginaries. This paper employs collective writing methodologies to explore techniques, strategies and rationalities that are shaping English teaching across the Asia Pacific region. We find that techniques, strategies and rationalities associated with English teaching reform produce a self-discipling subject (school-English), and what Foucault refers to as self-disciplining subjects (teachers and students), characterised by accountability, transparency, standardisation, and competition. However, the forces acting upon English teachers are not consistent across contexts, with some experiencing an intensification of control and others finding space for relaxing. More research is needed to trace the new incarnations and invocations of neoliberal discourses across borders, and between new policy actors, to address how policy ideas that are shaping school-English travel, move, and are (re)appropriated. This work is fundamental if we are to fully engage with neoliberalism’s transformative effects and affects on English teaching.