ABSTRACT
Many educational policies in the United Kingdom appear to promote ‘choice’ as a core value, positioning the individual as a ‘rational chooser’ with the capacity to make informed decisions about their own, or their children’s, education. This chapter examines this idea, locating it within the economic ideological framework of neoliberalism and suggesting that the rhetoric of ‘choice’ often serves to conceal strong elements of coercion and central control within the education system. Utilising M. Foucault’s theories of power relations and the processes through which people come to perceive themselves as ‘subjects’, it explores how neoliberal policy technologies are used to shape and regulate the behaviour of teachers, parents and students. The chapter argues that some ‘choices’ are highly privileged over others, with a normative vision of the middle-class individual forming the basis for what is seen as good and rational.
