The increasingly significant impact of corporate culture and managerial values and practices on higher education has been widely discussed among linguists and education researchers. At the core of the debate is the pervasive concept of marketization of knowledge which constitutes a case of cognitive dissonance in that it contrasts with the traditional non-commercial rhetoric embedded in educational values. This marketization process defines and shapes the notion of “entrepreneurial university”, a catchphrase characterized by the appropriation of the “enterprising spirit” reflected in enterprising discourses at the level of education (Mautner 2005). The aim of this contribution is to tackle the notion of “entrepreneurial university” slightly from a different angle. Rather than further exploring the repercussions of enterprising culture and managerial discourses on education I intend to focus on the “virtuous” side of this dissonant frame to investigate how the ethical, humanitarian, “cultural” values traditionally ascribed to the educational domain can possibly co-exist and interrelate with the profit-making logic encompassed with entrepreneurial discourses. Within the domain of higher education the Business Schools sector offers a potentially paradigmatic example of such a cognitive dissonance given its intrinsically direct link to the business context (and to managerial discourses) outside the academia. The present paper will examine the configuration of websites representative of top-ranking European/American Business Schools to explore how these prestigious institutions project their “selling” image for the high-fliers (and of the high-fliers) by implementing a process of re-appropriation of educational (and virtuous) values and discursive practices embedded (couched?) in business-like discourses. The reference methodological framework will draw on Critical Discourse Studies specifically focussing on “marketized” discourse and education (Fairclough 1993, Mautner 2005) and on multimodal literature (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 2001; O’ Halloran, K. J., 2004).
The 'Truman Show' of the high-fliers market: a case study of educational identity
CAMPAGNA, Sandra
2008-01-01
Abstract
The increasingly significant impact of corporate culture and managerial values and practices on higher education has been widely discussed among linguists and education researchers. At the core of the debate is the pervasive concept of marketization of knowledge which constitutes a case of cognitive dissonance in that it contrasts with the traditional non-commercial rhetoric embedded in educational values. This marketization process defines and shapes the notion of “entrepreneurial university”, a catchphrase characterized by the appropriation of the “enterprising spirit” reflected in enterprising discourses at the level of education (Mautner 2005). The aim of this contribution is to tackle the notion of “entrepreneurial university” slightly from a different angle. Rather than further exploring the repercussions of enterprising culture and managerial discourses on education I intend to focus on the “virtuous” side of this dissonant frame to investigate how the ethical, humanitarian, “cultural” values traditionally ascribed to the educational domain can possibly co-exist and interrelate with the profit-making logic encompassed with entrepreneurial discourses. Within the domain of higher education the Business Schools sector offers a potentially paradigmatic example of such a cognitive dissonance given its intrinsically direct link to the business context (and to managerial discourses) outside the academia. The present paper will examine the configuration of websites representative of top-ranking European/American Business Schools to explore how these prestigious institutions project their “selling” image for the high-fliers (and of the high-fliers) by implementing a process of re-appropriation of educational (and virtuous) values and discursive practices embedded (couched?) in business-like discourses. The reference methodological framework will draw on Critical Discourse Studies specifically focussing on “marketized” discourse and education (Fairclough 1993, Mautner 2005) and on multimodal literature (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 2001; O’ Halloran, K. J., 2004).
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