ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, I looked at the rise of the neoliberal imaginary as one of several such competing global imaginary spaces. The neoliberal imaginary looks to map all social and pedagogical processes on a perfectly transparent grid. The impulse to compare and contrast educational “outcomes” on local, state, national, and global levels is at the heart of this project and its associated testing regimes. The rise of these regimes in the United States and around the world has led to the narrowing of expertise and evidentiary claims for teachers and others “on the ground” in schools today. For example, No Child Left Behind has prioritized math and reading scores, leading to an infl ux of resources in these areas and a parallel evacuation of resources in others. Of course, math and reading lend themselves to the kinds of “pen and pencil” assessment mechanisms associated with massifi ed testing. Other areas and subjects do not. In this chapter, I look at one such area-the arts. The arts occupy another kind of imaginary space-one that often eludes calls for clarity and transparency. In this regard, I continue to explore the implications of phenomenology opened up in the last chapter. I look at the arts as one key site where the neoliberal imagination can perhaps be contested by other kinds of imaginaries. Such a project, however, means coming to terms with the limits of expertise-and the vulnerabilities we must live with when moving into less proscribed and conscripted spaces. This chapter discusses these issues at the school-based level. The next chapter looks at the implications for higher education.
