Giroux held that schooling, which should be in the benefit of all students and should be
considered as a democratic public sphere at the core of democracy, is losing its purpose due to the
influence of corporate values.
This study set up Giroux's central subjects for argument as neoliberalism and the corporatization of
schooling, and was conducted in the form of the following three research questions: ① How does
Giroux explain neoliberalism regarding the decline of the democratic condition? ② How does Giroux
diagnose the crisis of schooling by the corporate values? ③ What are the limits of Giroux's
arguments?
According to the study, Giroux offers the following: When a society is defined through the values
of neoliberalism, critical education, public morality, and civic responsibility as conditions for creating
thoughtful and engaged citizens are sacrificed all too willingly to the interest of financial capital and
the logic of profit-making. Educators supporting a democracy should warn low-grade faith like “A
profit chase is a substantive democracy. A democracy is same as capitalism.” In this context, Giroux
presumes the negative effects of corporate values on the schooling as the following: the attempt to
transform schooling from a public good, benefiting all students, to a private good designed to expand
the profits of investors, educate students as consumers, train students for the low-paying jobs of the
new global marketplace. Moreover, the effects of corporate values are resisted by Giroux. In other
words, educators concerned about democratic public life should provide an alternative vision of
schooling that supports democratic forms of political agency and a substantive democratic social
order.
But Giroux's arguments have several limits. Especially, Giroux is not considering that democratic
values exist alongside corporate values in the current schooling. Therefore, it is questionable how
persuasive and practical Giroux's diagnosis of the crisis of schooling is.