Marketization Of Education From The Perspective Of Discourse

Marketization is increasingly remarkable in modern society with the influence of consumer culture. Under this social background, this thesis aims to investigate this issue in senior high school context. Meanwhile, it also attempts to uncover what effect marketization of education in senior high schools have on both teachers and students there. Specifically, this study aims to answer three research questions.(1)How does recruitment prospectus reflect the marketization in senior high schools?(2) How does marketization actually implement on senior high school context?(3) What effects does the marketization of education have on both school teachers and students in senior high schools?In order to resolve the research questions, this study adopts case study as the research method with one particular senior high school as the case. As to data analysis, Fairclough’s three dimensional model of CDA is adopted as the main analytical framework throughout the whole data analysis process. Furthermore, interdiscursivity, order of discourse and other interdisciplinary theories including Habermas’theory on lifeworld and instrumental rationality, Baudrillard’s sign value and Foucault’s discourse theory are engaged in analyzing data from both recruitment prospectus and fieldwork.The result exhibits that the discourses in the prospectus are not just for providing information, but also serve to construct the social reality and identity of the school, promote or market it and its services. Furthermore, the analysis of the field data further illustrates that teachers’and students’lifeworld is largely colonized by instrumental rationality, which is a typical goal that marketing attempts to achieve. It further reveals that the school teachers and students are not only self-conscious subject of various discourses like discourse of score, discourse of national entrance examination, etc., but more remarkably, they are subject to these discourses. Analyzed from the perspective of CDA, this paper finally sheds light on the application of CDA in analyzing data in wider educational context. Besides, this paper also contributes to cultivating people’s critical awareness in reading various discourses, guiding people to read critically.