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25 - The Specter of Agreement

A Contractarian Analysis of Market Ethics in Education

from Part II - Ethics and Education in Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

By
Deron Boyles  and
Kenneth Driggers
Edited by
Sheron Fraser-Burgess ,
Jessica Heybach  and
Dini Metro-Roland
Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Affiliation:
Ball State University, Indiana
Jessica Heybach
Affiliation:
Florida International University
Dini Metro-Roland
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
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Summary

Considering the increasing privatization of public schools in the United States, the authors of this chapter utilize contractarianism to critique neoliberal practices. Textual evidence is drawn on to show the influence of contractarian arguments on neoliberal thinkers such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. After an explanation of the contractarianism of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the authors show that the neoliberal versions of the social contract are both incompatible with the tradition writ large and internally inconsistent philosophically. Rather than a public characterized by privatization, and the undermining of public schools that results, the authors argue for a public in which responsibility, obligation, and freedom are not contradictory terms, and a vision of public schools in which teachers successfully bring about those ethical goals.

Keywords

neoliberalismcontractarianismThomas HobbesJean-Jacques Rousseaupublic
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education , pp. 529 - 543
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

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