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Hong, Seoyeon

University of British Columbia

In light of the globalizing trend of formal education, the research examines the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) policy document titled Adapting Curriculum to Bridge Equity Gaps: Towards an Inclusive Curriculum (TIC). Although the OECD is an international organization, most of its global initiatives take place in the Western countries, focusing on the improvement of their socioeconomic welfare. The paper examines the OECD’s aspirations through its equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) education initiatives, and examines how it manages the conflicting principles of neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and inclusive education through the TIC policy. The thesis is developed on the methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the analytical frameworks of Norman Fairclough and Michel Foucault. By examining the language, discourses, and structure of the TIC document, the research sheds light on the underlying assumptions and ideologies that inform the OECD's approach to EDI and examines how the document promotes neoliberal and neocolonial values. After a thorough textual analysis, this research concludes how the OECD’s advocacy for inclusive education achieves several goals: (1) equivocate discourse on EDI as inherently good, while targeting equity-deserving students for assimilation into Western education systems, (2) frame inclusive education to be beneficial not only for improved social justice but also for economic productivity, and (3) promote neoliberal coloniality and expresses the OECD’s aspiration to reinforce its position as an international organization and leader. The overarching goal of this thesis is to outline the underlying neoliberal and neocolonial implications of the OECD’s EDI policies.

Text

2024-04-29

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88069

Educational Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/