LEARNING TO UNDERTAKE: THE LIFE PROJECT AND THE CULTURE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

“Think outside the box”, “Innovate”, “Be your own entrepreneur”, “Learn to undertake”. These are some of the formative imperatives conveyed daily in contemporary times. Many of us have been asked what we want to be when we grow up. Guided by market imperatives, the culture of entrepreneurship, the Life Project and self-management emerge as formative references in educational spaces. According to this culture, the Project of Life promises to develop the individuals in multiple dimensions, motivating them to solve problems and make decisions to achieve goals and accomplish professional fulfillment. When associated to the Project of Life, such culture imposes business devices – like competitiveness, performance and productivity – to the educational scope, submitting the training processes to a new governmentality. From that, we raise the following question: What have we made of ourselves under the control forms of life? We believe that the academic debate on the Project of Life is grounded in principles from the neoliberal market, prioritizing the formation of economically productive individuals, whose are, however, politically submissive and docile. Thus, we intend to discuss the role played by entrepreneurial pedagogical rationality in directing the forms of self-government. To develop our criticism, we adopt an analytical standpoint from Foucault's thoughts, which emerges as a theoretical framework capable of presenting the limits of neoliberal devices that place Education in the guidelines of productivity and effectiveness.