Education policy mobility: reimagining sustainability in neoliberal times

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the twinning of sustainability with priorities of economic neoliberalization in education, and in particular via the mobility or diffusion of education policy. We discuss the literature on policy mobility as well as overview concerns regarding neoliberalism and education. The paper brings these analyses to bear in considering the uptake of sustainability in education policy. We ask to what extent sustainability as a vehicular idea may be twinning with processes of neoliberalization in education policy in ways that may undermine aspirations of, and action on, environmental sustainability. Toward the end of the paper, we draw on data from an empirical study to help elucidate how the analytic frames of policy mobility can inform our analyses of the potential concerns and possibilities of sustainability as a vehicular idea. In particular, we investigate how sustainability and related language have been adopted in the policies of Canadian post-secondary education institutions over time. The paper closes by suggesting the potential implications of the proceeding analyses for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers concerned with sustainability in education policy.

Keywords:

• education policy
• policy mobility
• sustainability education
• neoliberalism
• policy analysis
• vehicular ideas
• higher education
• post-secondary education

Acknowledgments

Our thanks to Kathleen Aikens, Laurie Lidstone, Philip Vaughter, and Tarah Wright for their contributions to the development of the methods and the collection of the data referred to in this paper and to project manager Nicola Chopin for her very capable and constant support.

Notes

1. We understand ‘sustainability’ here as any policy that takes up the natural environment in some capacity, including in relation to social, economic, culture, health, and other factors. While we are concerned with the various ways sustainability terminology is engaged, we have limited the scope to those cases which include some reference to and consideration of environment.

2. We focus on the terminology of sustainability in this paper; however, in some cases, similar issues arise and have been discussed in relation to ‘sustainable development’ and other sustainability-related terminology. We draw on this broader literature in our discussion of sustainability.

3. Data were collected in 2012 from all 220 post-secondary institutions in Canada accredited with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC).

4. Policies which focused on sustainability goals but did not include any of the above terms in their titles totaled 6. Some policy titles included more than one of the terms, and thus, the numbers add up to more than 110.

5. For a content analysis of the policy documents of 50 of the 220 post-secondary institutions in Canada, see Vaughter et al. (forthcoming).

6. The Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has revoked the protection of 99% of Canada’s waterways and dismantled federal agencies responsible for environmental science and environmental assessment over the last several years to facilitate oil and tar sands development (Land 2013).

Additional information

Funding

This publication draws on research from the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), supported by a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 895-2011-1025], Principal Investigator Dr. Marcia McKenzie. For more information, visit www.sepn.ca.