Johnston, J. (2011). Interrogating the goals of work-integrated learning: Neoliberal agendas and critical pedagogy. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 12(3), 175-182.
Neoliberalism provides the grounding discourse for current alliances between universities and businesses. Work-integrated learning (WIL) within the university environment, where students learn about themselves and the world-of-work, is well-suited to this current global economic discourse, and is seen as a valuable asset to vocationally oriented subjects such as engineering, medicine, education and business. What happens, however, when a pilot in Bachelor of Arts internship, grounded within the language of Paulo Freire and critical pedagogy, confronts neoliberal agendas and the language and practices of a market-based economy? This paper, based on research with seventeen participants in a New Zealand university pilot Bachelor of Arts internship program, documents the power of neoliberalism. Participants reproduced neoliberal agendas in their description of themselves, their socio-location and their future goals.