Overcoming ideology for critical democracy in education Sirous Tabrizi University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada Abstract In a global society, where an emphasis on equality and social justice is important, equality of opportunity is of high importance especially for minorities. Within government policy groups there are a number of highly influential ideologies. Two currently popular ones include neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism. While both neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism seek to create opportunities for all citizens, through different means, their impact on education may hamper this. Furthermore, either ideology may hamper the development of critical democracy in a society. This paper will examine how neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism influence attempts to implement critical democracy in education, and why an emphasis on critical democracy regardless of the underlying ideology is better for education. 1. Introduction As the world is becoming more heavily globalized, education systems are slowly changing and adapting accordingly. A properly functioning globalized society requires the harmonious cooperation of multiple diverse groups, which suggests that topics such as equality and social justice are of great importance. Hence, an education system for a globalized world needs to include some preparation of students for potentially engaging with others who have a very different background and set of opinions. Different schools of thought have emerged to address this new kind of educational need, of which three will be examined in this paper: neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, and critical democracy. Each of these schools attempt to train students for effective performance in a globalized society, but they differ quite a bit in terms of how this educational should occur, the policies involved, and the role of government and economics. However, in this paper greater emphasis will be placed on how these different schools encourage and enable different groups to become educated. It will hopefully become clear how neither neo-liberalism nor neo- conservatism are sufficient for effectively educating all people in a country to become more active and capable global citizens. In the next section below I will provide a brief background of the three schools of thought. After that, a longer discussion will be made about the educational implications of each school. Finally, this paper will end with a short summary and conclusion. 2. Literature review This section will briefly discuss the three main concepts of this paper: neo-liberalism, neo- conservatism, and critical democracy. 2.1. Neo-liberalism Proponents of neo-liberal ideology argue that open, competitive and unregulated markets that have been liberated from all forms of state interference “represent the optimal mechanism for economic development” [3]. The paradox of neo-liberal ideology, continue Brenner and Theodore, is that while it emphasizes decentralization of administration to local and private institutions, in practice, Neo-liberal policies and practices actually involve “coercive, disciplinary forms of state intervention in order to impose market rule upon all aspects of social life” [3]. In education, the Neo-liberal agenda manifests itself in closer linkages between schools and businesses as well as the implementation of “free market” reforms, such as school vouchers, into education policy [9, 14]. 2.2. Neo-conservatism Neo-conservatives are usually guided by a vision of a strong state that asserts control over knowledge, culture, and the body. They seek a return to a romantic past where “real knowledge”, morality, and a supposedly stable social order existed. In education neo-conservative manifest in national and state-wide testing and curricula, content standards, the heralding Copyright © CICE-2014 Published by Infonomics Society ISBN 978-1-908320-24-7 31