The Transformation of Care in Performative Times

This chapter delves into the socio-politics of neoliberal reforms in education. The chapter explores how education policies that prioritise measurable learning outcomes have reshaped the practices of care in schools like Middle Park High School. It demonstrates how a focus on standardised testing, undertaken as part of NAPLAN in Australia, has shifted the landscape of care in schools to align it with performance expectations. This performative care reflects broader social transformation towards a mode of association anchored in individual rights under neoliberalism. In education, this shift has repositioned young people as performative student-subjects. The chapter draws on data to demonstrate how the performative ethics of care, driven by standards and metrics, has created tensions for teachers and school leaders committed to building relationships with their students as they navigate relational approaches with institutional demands.