“Inclination Towards Innovation”: Deconstructing Neoliberal Educational Discourses from a School Context

Diego Luna (), Jesús Romero Morante, José Antonio Pineda-Alfonso and Coral I. Hunt-Gómez
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Diego Luna: Department of Art Education, University of Seville, 41003 Seville, Spain
Jesús Romero Morante: Department of Education, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
José Antonio Pineda-Alfonso: Department of Experimental and Social Sciences Teaching, University of Seville, 41003 Seville, Spain
Coral I. Hunt-Gómez: Department of Language and Literature Education, University of Seville, 41003 Seville, Spain

Societies, 2024, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Educational innovation is a key concept for policymakers, school leaders, and families, but its conflicting aspects make it hard to define clearly. This study explores how pro-innovation narratives are created within Spanish educational policies and how these narratives are received in schools. Using principles of critical discourse analysis, we examined a corpus of ten texts from three different discursive fields with a tailored analytical approach. This paper focuses specifically on findings related to regulations and the private school involved in the study. The results reveal a strong connection between Spanish educational laws and the political environment in which they were developed. Additionally, the study identifies new, economically-driven definitions for key concepts like education , quality , and innovation . A major conclusion is that today’s “innovative” schools align with the principles of educational neoliberalism. In this context, the concept of innovation reflects lawmakers’ goals, which school leaders endorse. At the school level, administrators adopt a self-promotional discourse that often appears contradictory and propagandist.

Keywords: educational innovation; education policies; neoliberalism; private school; critical discourse analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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