Science for Education Today, 2022, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 30–54
© Ashilova M. S., Begalinov A. S., Begalinova K. K., 2022
UDC: 
101+378.4+316

The collapse of neoliberal concept of education in the COVID-19 era and the prospects for post-COVID education [in English]

Ashilova M. S. 1 (Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan), Begalinov A. S. 2 (Almat, Republic of Kazakhstan), Begalinova K. K. 3 (Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan)
1 Department of Mass Communication, Ablai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and Foreign Languages
2 International University of Information Technologies
3 Department of Philosophy, Al Farabi Kazakh National University
Full text (Open Access) — Downloaded 976
Abstract: 

Introduction. The authors investigate the problem of value changes occurring in the higher education system. The COVID-19 pandemic, which spread around the world in early 2020, has had a serious impact on higher education. It has led to the need to revise the axiological foundations of modern education. The purpose of this article is to analyze the neoliberal concept of higher education in the modern world and identify trends for the future post-COVID education.
Materials and Methods. The materials included international research articles published between 2020 and 2021 and devoted to the subject under study, as well as a sociological study conducted in the Republic of Kazakhstan and investigating well-being and value orientations of students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 1,000 university students from all 14 regions in Kazakhstan was interviewed. The main proportion of students was retained in the sample (by gender, language of instruction, nationality, years of study and degree programmes). The study was conducted using the Google Forms application. The main research methods were content analysis of scholarly literature (more than 40 international sources), as well as analysis based on the results of the sociological survey of students in Kazakhstan.
Results. The authors revealed that if at the very beginning researchers paid attention to such negative aspects of the pandemic as poor technical equipment, Internet failures, unpreparedness of academic staff and students for online learning, the growth of student debts due to job loss, etc., then it soon became clear that the pandemic affected not only the external (economic, technical) side of education, but also its very essence. Today, researchers all over the world are critically analyzing the foundations of modern higher education - neoliberal concepts that have dominated in different countries since the late twentieth century and the development of globalization. It is shown that the current global educational crisis has not been caused by the pandemic, but by the unaccounted negative consequences of the deep penetration of neoliberalism ideas into society (market relations, uncontrolled competition, weakening of the role of the state, weak support for social sectors of the economy, etc.). The authors argue that societies with a developed system of neoliberal higher education experience more stress than developing, traditional ones like Kazakhstan, since the basis of education of the former is mainly the market and monetary-market relations, the basis of the latter is moral, intangible values of education.
Conclusions. Exploring the prospects of post-secondary education based on international research investigations, the authors have put forward the ideas about the need to abandon neoliberalism in favor of greater humanization, fundamentalization and ecologization of education, strengthening state control and financing. The authors consider this as the only possible form for progressive development of higher education after the pandemic.

Keywords: 

Neoliberalism; COVID-19 pandemic; Higher education; Philosophy of education; Post-secondary education; Well-being of youth.

URL WoS/RSCI: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/rsci/full-record/RSCI:48057194

For citation:
Ashilova M. S., Begalinov A. S., Begalinova K. K. The collapse of neoliberal concept of education in the COVID-19 era and the prospects for post-COVID education [in English]. Science for Education Today, 2022, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 30–54. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15293/2658-6762.2201.02
References: 
  1. Centeno M. A., Cohen J. N. The arc of neoliberalism. Annual Review of Sociology, 2012, vol. 38 (1), pp. 317–340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150235  
  2. Hursh D., Henderson J. A. Contesting global neoliberalism and creating alternative futures. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2011, vol. 32 (2), pp. 171–185. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2011.562665  
  3. Peters M. A. Three forms of the knowledge economy: Learning, creativity and openness. British Journal of Educational Studies, 2010, vol. 58 (1), pp. 67–88. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071000903516452  
  4. Patrick F. Neoliberalism, the knowledge economy, and the learner: Challenging the inevitability of the commodified self as an outcome of education. International Scholarly Research Notices, 2013, vol. 2013, pp. 108705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/108705  
  5. Pan S.  COVID-19 and the neo-liberal paradigm in higher education: Changing landscape. Asian Education and Development Studies, 2020, vol. 10 (2), pp. 322–335. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/aeds-06-2020-0129
  6. Rhoades G., Slaughter S. Academic capitalism, managed professionals, and supply-side higher education. Social Text, 1997, vol. 51, pp. 9–38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/466645
  7. Marginson S.  After globalization: Emerging politics of education. Journal of Education Policy, 1999, vol. 14 (1), pp. 19–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/026809399286477
  8. Verdun A. European responses to globalization and financial market integration: perceptions of economic and monetary union in Britain, France and Germany. St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, 2000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230535824
  9. Moos L. Neo-liberal governance leads education and educational leadership astray. In: Uljens M., Ylimaki R. (eds) Bridging Educational Leadership, Curriculum Theory and Didaktik. Educational Governance Research, 2017, vol. 5, pp. 151–180. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58650-2_2  

10. Peters M. Classical political economy and the role of universities in the new knowledge economy. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2003, vol. 1 (2), pp. 153–168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1476772032000105483   

11. Fumagalli A. Twenty theses on contemporary capitalism (cognitive biocapitalism). Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2011, vol. 16 (3), pp. 7–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2011.626555  

12. Tsogas G. The commodity form in cognitive capitalism. Culture and Organization, 2012, vol. 18 (5), pp. 377–395. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2012.728393  

13. Olssen M., Peters M. Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: From the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 2005, vol. 20 (3), pp. 313–345. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500108718

14. Phillips L., Ilcan S. Capacity-building: The neoliberal governance of development. Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 2004, vol. 25 (3), pp. 393–409. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2004.9668985

15. Olssen M. Understanding the mechanisms of neoliberal control: Lifelong learning, flexibility and knowledge capitalism. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2006, vol. 25 (3), pp. 213–230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370600697045

16. Giroux H. The Covid-19 pandemic is exposing the plague of neoliberalism. Praxis Educativa, 2020, vol. 24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19137/praxiseducativa-2020-240202  

17. Sharma A. The pandemic, race and the crisis of the neoliberal university: Study notes from lockdown London. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2020, vol. 21 (4), pp. 645–655. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2020.1832303

18. Schwartz K. D., Exner-Cortens D., McMorris C. A., Makarenko E., Arnold P., Van Bavel M., Williams S., Canfield R. COVID-19 and student well-being: Stress and mental health during return-to-school. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 2021, vol. 36 (2), pp. 166–185. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08295735211001653 

19. Gibbs P. Transdisciplinary possibilities after the pandemic. Reimagining the new pedagogical possibilities for universities post-Covid-19. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2020, vol. 52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1777655

20. Gorur R. Course correction: Disciplines in the post-COVID world. Reimagining the new pedagogical possibilities for universities post-Covid-19. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2020, vol. 52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1777655

Burbules N. Lessons from the coronavirus: What we are learning about online learning Nicholas. Reimagining the new pedagogical possibilities for universities post-Covid-19. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2020, vol. 52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1777655

Date of the publication 28.02.2022