Does collaborative learning challenge neoliberal ideologies in our next generation of post-primary teachers or conform around it? A discussion

While much attention is paid to tracing the spectre of neoliberalism and its effect on Irish educational policy, that conversation risks happening ‘above and around' the classroom (Apple, 2011). The present paper focuses on how neoliberalism might be shaping the values, norms, and personally-held ideologies of our next generation of post-primary teachers. Conversational data gathered over three years from post-primary, pre-service teachers (PSTs) engaged in Collaborative Learning (CL) conversations suggests the PSTs are interpreting their learning task less as a learning activity and more as a kind of labour, wherein grades are metaphorically cast as payment (Harrington, 2023). This paper builds on that conversation and notes, not only are they interpreting their learning in terms of labour but, more specifically, as labour in a neoliberal context and explores the epistemic consequences therein. CL has been championed as a mode of learning with its own intrinsically democratic, ‘rehumanising' ideals, and hence a critical component of reinstating and sustaining democratic society (Johnson and Johnson, 2019). This paper asks what happens when CL experiences neoliberalism's ‘corrosive and corrupting’ touch (Sandel, 2012); does it disrupt neoliberal norms or conform around them?