Critical Discourse and Twenty-First-Century Education Reform Policy

In this chapter, we examine how the discourses of education reform intersect with twenty-first-century policies that purport to prepare students to be productive members of a global economy. Through the example of a national reform organization that promises to deliver twenty-first-century skills and competencies, we demonstrate how discourse shaped and revealed the aims of the program as it was implemented in three high schools. We show that education discourse shapes policy initiatives at the same time that it influences practices of schooling and society that prioritize commercial interests over social improvement.