Neo-fascism as the Apparatus of Neoliberalism’s Assault on Philippine Higher Education: Towards an Anti-Fascist Pedagogy

Abstract

: The neoliberal restructuring of the global economy as a response to the crisis of capitalist accumulation has led inevitably to the reform of higher education on the global scale. The neoliberal assaults on higher education pushed for vigorous marketization and corporatization of colleges and universities. In the Philippine context, the impact of neoliberal reform of education transpired primarily in the enactment of the K+12 reform. Such reform aligned Philippine basic education to the international division of labor. But under the Duterte regime, the neoliberal reform of the Philippine educational system coincided with the neo-fascist character of the state. It is the main thesis of this paper that the neo-fascist assault against higher education serves as a guarantee to push for unhampered neoliberal restructuring of Philippine education. In the face of this challenge, this paper will propose the development and practice of anti-fascist pedagogy among educators and education workers.