THE EDUCATION STATE, CONVERSATION AND DEMOCRACY TO COME
BRIAN OPIEABSTRACT. A new consensus about the purposes of education and knowledge creation in democratic societies is needed. Neoliberalism’s impoverished market model of the state and the citizen continue to be entrenched in social thinking through government policies and legislation, media representation, the dominance of the business and finance sectors of society as political interest groups, and curriculum change in the formal education system. Recovery of the idea of democratic governance and its more complete implementation depends upon a profound shift in the centre of gravity in nation states now claiming to be democracies, away from the economy and the cluster of interests it brings together and towards educating and learning as the primary focus of public policy. pp. 134–150
JEL codes: H52; H75; I21; I23
Keywords: democratic governance; education state; learning; conversation
How to cite: Opie, Brian (2015), “The Education State, Conversation and Democracy to Come,” Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 3(2): 134–150.
Received 16 August 2015 • Received in revised form 22 September 2015
Accepted 22 September 2015 • Available online 24 November 2015