Anne Hill

Discursive change and the empowerment of children: a conceptual analysis

Anne Hill
Senior Lecturer,
CPUT Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, South Africa
hilla@cput.ac.za
Phone: 021 680 1525


The paper responds to key terms in the International Seminar concept note that signify notions driving education reform discourse in Kerala.
A post-structuralist approach is used to deconstruct the term ‘secular’ and how it constructs identity in a globalising discursive environment.
Tensions between notions of hegemony and agency in the language of globalisation, neo-liberalism and democracy are explored. Binary conceptions of reflective versus reflexive adaptation to change, critical versus emotivist argument and functional versus rights-based democracy are proposed.
Bernstein’s taxonomy of learners’ rights and conditions for their realisation is presented as a framework for constructing democratic learning environments.

Finally, attention is drawn to the affect of aligning education reform with a discourse of rights-based democracy on education practices for agency and empowerment.



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