Can critical pedagogy resist the conservative employability agenda–how are academics implicated and how are they to manoeuvre?

Abstract

Higher education institutions are increasingly pressured to align curricula with neoliberal employability agendas, yet such input often fails to consider the lived experiences of students who work while studying, especially those from widening participation backgrounds. This paper critically examines the employability agenda through the lens of a research project involving academic staff and students from a Sociology degree at an ex-polytechnic university in England. The study explores how students navigate employment during their studies, challenging the dominant assumption that employability entails a linear transition from education to work. Doing so offers a hopeful critique for the academic, to question how they’re implicated in coercive policy and consider how they can exercise agency to resist.