Antonio-olmedo | School of Education

Dr Antonio (Ono) Olmedo

Associate Professor in Education Policy Sociology

A.Olmedo@exeter.ac.uk

4943

01392 724943

North Cloisters NC24

North Cloisters, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK

Overview

My academic work has always been directly connected with the area Education Policy Sociology and Social Theory.

My research agenda has been shaped by the works of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, and in a more direct and personal manner by the contributions and company of Prof. Stephen Ball. More specifically, it focusses on the analysis of neoliberal policy networks, the role of new policy actors, and the enactment of new solutions for social problems, with an emphasis on emerging patterns of privatisation, opportunity and inequalities in education policy. Over the past fifteen years, I have led and participated in several national and international research projects.

I am a 'critical friend' of Education International (global union federation of teachers and other education employees) and school governor at a local primary school. This is a central part of my intellectual and social activity as I strongly believe that academic work should provide tools to understand and facilitate the construction of responses to the challenges posed by social change and social inequalities.

Research group links

Centre for Research in Professional Learning

Research

Research interests

My main research interests fall within the areas of:

Education policy and social justice: social inequalities and segregation.
Neoliberal policies and the creation of quasi-markets in education: privatisation, competition and school choice
The (re)creation of neoliberal subjectivities in education.
Global policy networks: heterarchies, policy advocacy, philanthropy, and ‘edu-businesses’.

Research projects

2019 - 2020

Project: New landscapes and logics of competition in education: geography, demography and equity in English education policy

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding institution: Research Incentivisation Fund, University of Bristol

Amount: £4030

2018-2019

Project: The multiple facets of philanthropic participation and the reconfiguration of the role of governments in education policy making

Role: Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Carolina Junemann

Funding institution: Education International – Global Federation of Teachers’ Unions

Amount: £10.000

2016-2017

Project: Philanthrocapitalism: policy networks and the role of philanthropic governance in processes of privatisation of and in public education.

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding institution: Education International – Global Federation of Teachers’ Unions

Amount: £15.000

2012-2014

Project: Philanthropy, Business and Education: market-based solutions to educational problems in developing countries.

Role: Co-Principal Investigator with Prof. Stephen Ball

Funding institution: British Academy / Royal Society

Participant institutions: Institute of Education, University of London.

Amount: £62.600

Publications

Journal articles

Olmedo A, Wilkins A (2017). Governing through parents: a genealogical enquiry of education policy and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in England. DISCOURSE-STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION, 38(4), 573-589. Author URL.

Olmedo A (2016). Something old, not much new, and a lot borrowed: philanthropy, business, and the changing roles of government in global education policy networks. Oxford Review of Education, 43(1), 69-87.

Olmedo A, Wilkins A (2014). Governing through parents: Education policy and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in England. Profesorado, 18(2), 99-116. Abstract.

Olmedo A (2014). HETERARCHIES AND "PHILANTHROPIC GOVERNANCE" GLOBAL: CONTROVERSIES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL CONTROL OF SOCIAL POLICIES. Revista Educação e Políticas em Debate, 2(2). Abstract.

Olmedo A (2013). <i>From England with love</i>… ARK, heterarchies and global ‘philanthropic governance’. Journal of Education Policy, 29(5), 575-597.

Ball SJ, Olmedo A (2013). Care of the self, resistance and subjectivity under neoliberal governmentalities. Critical Studies in Education, 54(1), 85-96.

Olmedo A, Grau ESC (2013). Neoliberalism, policy advocacy networks and think tanks in the Spanish educational arena: the case of FAES. Education Inquiry, 4(3), 22618-22618.

Olmedo A (2013). Policy-makers, market advocates and edu-businesses: new and renewed players in the Spanish education policy arena. Journal of Education Policy, 28(1), 55-76.

Olmedo A, Bailey PLJ, Ball SJ (2013). To Infinity and beyond …: Heterarchical Governance, the Teach for all Network in Europe and the Making of Profits and Minds. European Educational Research Journal, 12(4), 492-512. Abstract.

Chapters

Olmedo A, Junemann C (2023). New policy Intercessors: Philanthropy and Public Private Partnerships. In (Ed) Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships, Routledge. Abstract.

Olmedo A, Junemann C (2021). Privatisation and Commercialisation in Public Education: How the Public Nature of Schooling is Changing. In (Ed) Privatisation and Commercialisation in Public Education How the Public Nature of Schooling is Changing, Routledge. Abstract.