Education In The Age Of Biocapitalism: Optimizing Educational Life For A Flat World (new Frontiers In Education, Culture, And Politics)

Biocapitalism, an economic model built on making new commodities from existing forms of life, has fundamentally changed how we understand the boundaries between nature/culture and human/nonhuman. This is the first book to examine its implications for education and how human capital understandings of education are co-evolving with biocapitalism. Biocapitalism, an economic model built on finding and creating new commodities from existing forms of life, has fundamentally changed how we understand the boundaries between nature and culture and between human and nonhuman entities. How should educators, students, and communities respond to such developments as the first genetically engineered animal made for human consumption, powerful new psychotropic drugs designed to target behavioral disorders, genetic explanations of learning and intelligence, and new methods of educational assessment interested in determining the added value of students and teachers in the classroom? Education in the Age of Biocapitalism is the first book to not only chart how education should respond to the historic challenges of living in a biocapitalist society, but also to examine how human capital understandings of education are co-evolving with biocapitalism This Book Is An In-depth Examination Of The Growing Alignment Between Powerful Global Bioindustries And Education Reform In The U.s. Utilizing A Biopolitical Methodology, The Book Focuses On How Value-added Measures And Other Neoliberal Strategies Embedded In Policies Such As 'race To The Top' Are Involving Schools In A Project To Manage And Regulate Educational Life For Competing In A New 'flat World'. Understanding The Educational Present, This Work Argues, Requires Individuals To Consider What Advanced Industrialized Nations Across The Globe Are Viewing As The Future. Biocapitalist Development In Areas Such As Genetic Engineering, Drug Therapies, And Cellular Cloning Is The Promissory Future Driving Nations Like The U.s. To Out-compete And Out-educate One Another At Any Cost. This Book Assesses The Implications For Education In The Biocapitalist Era And Points To Alternative Futures Not Based On Such A Vision Of Life And Its Productive Potential-- Introduction: Biopolitics And Education : A Return To The Question Of Life And School -- Part I: Origins Of Educational Biocapital. Learning To Be Homo Economicus On The Plantation : A Brief History Of Human Capital Metrics ; Schooling For Value-added Life : The Making Of Educational Biocapital -- Part Ii: Promissory Future(s) : Learning The Science Of Life. Engineering Promissory Future(s) : Rethinking Scientific Literacy In The Era Of Biocapitalsim ; Learning About Aquadvantage Salmon For An Ant : Actor Network Theory And Education In The Postgenomic Era -- Part Iii: Biological Citizenship In A Flat World : Governmentalities Of Optimization And Their Alternatives. The Biomedicalization Of Kids : Psychotropic Drugs And Biochemical Governing In High-stakes Schooling -- Epilogue. By Clayton Pierce. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. As an economic model built on finding and creating new commodities from existing forms of life, biocapitalism has fundamentally changed how we understand the boundaries between nature and culture and thus relations between humans and nonhumans. How, for example, should educators, students, and communities respond to developments such as the first genetically engineered animal made for human consumption, powerful new psychotropic drugs designed to target behavioral 'disorders' in students, genetic explanations of learning and intelligence, and new methods of educational assessment interested in determining the added value of students and teachers in the classroom? Education in the Age of Biocapitalism is the first book to not only chart how education should respond to the historic challenges of living in a biocapitalist society but also to examine how human-capital understandings of education have merged with the productive paradigm of biocapitalism interested in extracting the most value out of life. Introduction: Biopolitics and Education: A Return to the Question of Life in Schools PART I: ORIGINS OF EDUCATIONAL BIOCAPITAL 1. Learning to be Homo economicus on the Plantation: A Brief History of Human Capital Metrics 2. Schooling for Value-Added Life: The Making of Educational Biocapital PART II: PROMISSORY FUTURE(S): LEARNING THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 3. Engineering Promissory Future(s): Rethinking Scientific Literacy in the Era of Biocapitalism 4. Learning about AquAdvantage® Salmon from an ANT: Actor Network Theory and Education in the Postgenomic Era PART III: GOVERNING STUDENTS FOR A FLAT WORLD AND ALTERNATIVES 5. The Biomedicalization of Kids: Psychotropic Drugs and Biochemical Governing in High Stakes Schooling Epilogue: Alternative Futures of Education: Exiting Education for Biocapital Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-38 Front Matter....Pages 39-39 Learning to be Homo economicus on the Plantation: A Brief History of Human Capital Metrics....Pages 41-62 Schooling for Value-Added Life: The Making of Educational Biocapital....Pages 63-84 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 Engineering Promissory Future(s): Rethinking Scientific Literacy in the Era of Biocapitalism....Pages 87-109 Learning about AquAdvantage® Salmon from an ANT: Actor Network Theory and Education in the Postgenomic Era....Pages 111-136 Front Matter....Pages 137-137 The Biomedicalization of Kids: Psychotropic Drugs and Biochemical Governing in High-Stakes Schooling....Pages 139-163 Epilogue....Pages 165-173 Back Matter....Pages 175-211