Retooling the tools of critical reflection: On how quotidian tasks undermine critical inquiry

This paper describes a fundamental ambivalence in the ‘tools’ deployed in education. These aim to support critical reflection, yet undermine criticality by reproducing the dominant discourse which they aim to critique. This ambivalence is illustrated with materials from high-school economics textbooks. Drawing on theories of hegemony and subjectivation, and qualitative analysis of textbooks, the paper identifies a tension between student tasks that invite students to (i) critically reflect on the figure of the homo economicus, and activities that invite students to (ii) think in models, play strategy games and simulations, and follow rational decision-making strategies. These latter activities uncritically enact the figure of the homo economicus. The concluding sections reflect on utilising ‘tools’ as a concept, and on the urgent need to analyse quotidian aspects of educational technologies like textbooks, alongside the more widely discussed controversies over commercialisation, corporate ownership or democratic deficits surrounding the media used in state education.