Child- centered pedagogies, curriculum reforms and neoliberalism. Many causes for concern, some reasons for hope

This article maps some of the ways in which neoliberalism, pedagogy, and curriculum are closely interconnected. Looking at the Spanish curriculum reform during the first Socialist administration in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it explicitly identifies child-centered pedagogies as an important tool in articulating the neoliberal agenda in curriculum reforms around the world. It explores the way Spain uncritically embraced these curriculum reforms with a notion of the individual not defined by the educational needs of the country but by the neoliberal rationality dominating Spain’s political and economic transition at the time. Based on this analysis and on the way child-centered pedagogies have been implemented in education reforms around the world, this article considers the question of whether such pedagogies can really work toward the democratic ideals they claim to serve. The article concludes by offering some reflections on this question and by calling for a larger and interdisciplinary conversation on the ideological possibilities of these pedagogies.