Introduction and Historical Perspective

Abstract

In nations around the globe, the language of human capital has come to dominate public discourse concerning education, to the point where this language is so ubiquitous that it has become nearly invisible. As Rizvi and Lingard explain, An almost universal shift from social democratic to neoliberal orientations in thinking about educational purposes and governance [has] result[ed] in policies of corporatization, privatization and commercialization, on the one hand, and on a greater demand for accountability, on the other…At the same time, educational purposes have been re-defined in terms of a narrower set of concerns about human capital development, and the role education must play to meet the needs of the global economy and to ensure the competitiveness of the national economy. (2009, p. 10; italics added)