“Educational technology is chiefly and increasingly being used as a tool for the privatization of education and the commodification of people by way of top down evaluative structures put in place by governments in collusion with neoliberal interests.”

-Thomas K. Thomas

Thomas and Yang provide a great example of the dangers imposed by neoliberal practices in Taiwanese education. Ever since the 1990s, Taiwanese education went into a cycle of decline as teachers failed to utilize helpful, advanced technologies in their curriculum and students underperformed. At first glance, teachers and students alike were quickly blamed for the nation’s shortcoming amongst competitive economies around the world. However, upon further investigation the study outlines that there were bureaucratic, socio-political forces in play that hindered the productivity of Taiwan’s education system. Teachers were pressured with top-down evaluations that stripped away the value of teaching and reduced the importance to just a few checks and numbers. In addition, the Ministry of Education punished schools and teachers that did not meet the evaluation requirements with sanctions, making it even harder to perform better. What makes this situation worse, however, is the fact that many of the reforms and policies put in place were influenced by global practices rather than stemming from something historically national. 

The consequence, at the end of all this, is that Taiwanese youth are blamed for the failure of their nation’s potential. By adapting an “efficient” education model, it was believed that the state could “efficiently” produce a generation class of useful, utilizable citizens.  But that is exactly the harm imposed by an education system that inherently emphasizes training and development in areas that generate capital. When the education system fails, students fail, and when students fail they lack a brand or resume or legitimacy to survive in a capitalistic society. Much like the articles on Chinese immigrants and precarious work, or Driscoll’s piece of ‘Freetas’ that other pages on this project cover, people’s citizenships and livelihoods are restricted and predetermined—they are set up for failure. 

Sources:

Thomas, Michael K., and Wan-Lin Yang. "Neoliberalism, Globalization, and Creative Educational Destruction in Taiwan." Educational Technology Research and Development 61.1 (2013): 107-29. Web.