Education as a Power Tool: Michel Foucault’s Views on Education

Education, which has the power to build and transform the life of the individual and society, has a very important place in our lives. In fact, this transformative power of education which is further exaggerated by society has imprisoned it in a world of artificiality. Education is treated like a magic wand that makes everything possible in this enchanting universe. Foucault’s ideas theorizing the relationship between the neoliberal power apparatus and education could actually save education from this aforementioned world and make it possible to discuss the real characteristics of education. Therefore, this study examines the relationship of education with the neoliberal power mechanism through Foucault’s views on education and the relationship between education and power, and thus aims to present a different perspective on the matter. In light of the findings of the study, Foucault’s original interpretation of governmentality that revised the concept of power offers the opportunity to discuss education with a more realistic approach by enabling an exceptional perspective on education’s role in cultivating subjects on behalf of the neoliberal power apparatus. In this context, the fact that education, which is seen as an intrinsic journey in the ancient world, is treated only as a change of behavior in the modern world, and this radical transformation in education can be understood realistically with the ideas of Foucault who offered a unique view on the subject. Within this system, the student is also reduced to the position of an exploitation object of the late capitalist power apparatus which consctructs her/him as a subject who supposes s/he is free.

Keywords

Michel Foucault, education and power, education and subjectification