Disrupting the ‘Student as Consumer’ Model: the New Emancipatory Project

This article first outlines political, economic and cultural changes that underlie the prevailing conception of college and university students as consumers of educational services. It describes several implications of this conception for classroom teaching, particularly for the practices of critical pedagogues. It argues that while the consumerist orientations of students help to anchor the model of student as consumer, the model itself also provides students with a basis for critiquing the services that they receive from educational institutions. It then raises the question of how this model of student can be disrupted. Drawing from the author’s own teaching experiences, it describes ways that faculty members can encourage critical reflection among their students about their consumerist orientations and awaken and nourish their sense of political entitlement based on their membership in an intellectual community.