Cohering contradictions and manufacturing belief in Dreamfields’ ‘good empire’
Cohering contradictions and manufacturing belief in Dreamfields’ ‘good empire’
This chapter shows how Dreamfields’ rigid discipline is made palatable and even welcomed by promoting a belief in the institution, its methods and its benefits to individual, aspirational futures. Repetition and morality tales are used to smooth over the various contradictions and ambiguities inherent in Dreamfields’ approach. Principal Culford assumes the combined role of saviour, hero, military commander and business executive in this rigidly hierarchical operation, leading a redemptive troupe of teachers-as-surrogate parents who assiduously labour to redeem a twenty-first century 'urban residuum'. Crafting 'appropriate' aesthetic appearances and reiterating Dreamfields’ superior position in the education market are also facets of this indoctrination process, offering powerful proof of institutional validity and providing a sweetener allowing the often unpleasant, tiring medicine of discipline to go down smoothly.
Keywords: Aspiration, Social mobility, Gender, Body, Labour conditions, Ambiguity, Power
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