Nadira Talib
The University of Queensland, Australia, School of Communication and Arts, Department Member
- Education, Discourse Analysis, Educational planning, management, evaluation and policies, Amartya Sen, Anarchism, Anarchism & Postmodern Theory, and 29 moreMichel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, Surrealism, Economics of Education, Ethics and economics, Frederic Chopin, Jazz, Claude Monet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustav Klimt, Philosophy, Salvador Dali, Free Will and Moral Responsibility, Metaphysics of Free Will and Moral Responsibility, Free Will, Free will and determinism debate, Free Will, Moral Responsibility, Philosophy of mind Free will and Consciousness, Free Will and Determinism, Free Will and Determinsim, Determinism--Free Will, The Problem of Free Will and Determinism, Autonomy and Free Will in Philosophy, Free will vs predestination, David Bohm, Research Methodology, Qualitative Research, Social Research Methods and Methodology, and Research Writingedit
- Nadira Talib holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, Australia. Her PhD research focuses on developing methods... moreNadira Talib holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, Australia. Her PhD research focuses on developing methods of synthesizing philosophical deliberations with Critical Discourse Analysis in analysing social policies to account for how the world is organized and how we should live in it, and to be able to have some understanding of the conditions that govern our existence. She is particularly interested in the strategic role of policy discourse in relation to neo-liberal economic structural reforms, ethics, and morality.
She is the author of the book 'Is it time to let meritocracy go? Examining the case of Singapore' (Routledge), which presents transdisciplinary methods for constructing a flexible philosophical-analytical model that integrates elements of music (three movements of concerto), art (hyperrealism, surrealism), and water-fluid dynamics through which to apply the analytic principles of Critical Discourse Analysis for the interpretation of metaphors across historical policy texts from 1979 to 2019. Her internationally peer-reviewed journal articles are featured in ScienceDaily, Bookforum, and in an editorial review of ‘The Top 100 Cited Discourse Studies’ (2015-2019) in the subject area of ‘linguistics and language’. Demonstrating a high level of commitment to the disciplinary fields of philosophy and political thought, political economy, and policy analysis, her work offers an original re-examination of problems related to economic structural reforms, justice, and equity.
Global impact:
- Publications by Talib and Fitzgerald (2015, 2016, 2018) are among the "Top 100 Cited Discourse Studies", 2015-2019 (Raitskaya, L. & Tikhonova, 2019). The editorial review of the top 100 most cited articles on discourse in the subject area of ‘linguistics and language’ aims to define the dominating trends and and find out the prevailing article structures for Journal of Language and Education authors to follow as the best practice-based patterns and guidelines.
- The Special Issue article on Ethics in Critical Discourse Studies, “Putting philosophy back to work in critical discourse analysis” is noted in bookforum.com. Bookforum is “a showcase for rigorous and elegant writing” (the Village Voice).
- The article, "Inequality as meritocracy: The use of the metaphor of diversity and the value of inequality in Singapore's meritocratic education system" is featured in sciencedaily.com (2015, April 28) in an article titled, "What is the value of inequality within Singapore's education system?". https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150428105815.htm. It is also listed as one of the most read articles in Critical Discourse Studies journal with with 5,900 views in 2023.
-She was invited to write commentaries on Singapore's education system for The Karyawan. They are: "Is it time to equalise conditions across schools?" (2018) and "What is the foundation of Singapore's education system?" (2019)
She was awarded the Dean’s commendation for High Achievement in 2009. She was a recipient of the UQ BA (Hons) and the highly competitive UQ International (UQI) Research Higher degree scholarships.
Peer reviewer for the following journals:
1. Critical Policy Studies
2. Critical Discourse Studies
3. Journal of Education Policy
4. Oxford Review of Education
5. Evaluation Journal of Australasia
6. Asia Pacific Journal of Education
7. Pedagogies: An International Journal
8. Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
9. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher
10. Journal of Contemporary African Studies
11. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Educationedit
Here I use aspects of Phil Graham’s discourse analytical work to examine forms of e/valuations and critically analyse the formulation of truths in the constitution of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter, AI). This paper focuses on two 2019... more
Here I use aspects of Phil Graham’s discourse analytical work to examine forms of e/valuations and critically analyse the formulation of truths in the constitution of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter, AI). This paper focuses on two 2019 documents: Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI (AI HLEG, 2019a) and Policy and investment recommendations for trustworthy AI (AI HLEG, 2019b). My aim here is to provide a timely contribution to contemporary philosophical–methodological innovations in documenting the constellation of values that are prefigured in human-centric constructions of AI. The analysis is informed primarily by principles from Graham’s distinctive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA), which I take to be the philosophical study of valuation. In that approach, political economy is taken as a composite formulation of values whereby neo-liberalism is discursively entwined and progressed through a system of principles of e/valuation. This paper presents a roadmap to demonstrate the usefulness of a philosophically grounded interdisciplinary piece of linguistic research through which evaluative semantic categories can be usefully synthesised with CDA to systematically expose the assumptions which underpin current truth claims and values – in this case, about and around the ethics of AI.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Political Economy, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and 15 moreEthics, Social Policy, International Political Economy, Education Policy, Nietzsche, Political Discourse Analysis, Ideology and Discourse Analysis, Future of artificial intelligence, Foucault and education, Foucault power/knowledge - discourse, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Discourse Analysis (DA), Foucault, and Public Policy
This project seeks to conduct an investigation and evaluation of the pedagogical approaches adopted in the acquisition of English language literacy for low-waged, low-skilled adult learners of English in Singapore. The research focuses on... more
This project seeks to conduct an investigation and evaluation of the pedagogical approaches adopted in the acquisition of English language literacy for low-waged, low-skilled adult learners of English in Singapore. The research focuses on the pedagogical approach undertaken in the curriculum and training programmes that have been delivered under Singapore’s Workplace Literacy Programme through the approved Workplace Literacy Training Providers, and further determines the pedagogical approaches which would be most effective in enabling low-waged and low-skilled adult learners to acquire English literacy and meet programme outcomes.
This paper examines how, within the context of meritocracy, a highly differentiated education system can coexist with assertions of equal opportunity. Drawing on the example of Singapore's education policy texts from 1991 to 2012, the... more
This paper examines how, within the context of meritocracy, a highly differentiated education system can coexist with assertions of equal opportunity. Drawing on the example of Singapore's education policy texts from 1991 to 2012, the paper exemplifies and expands the analytical potential of a micro-meso-macro movements framework with which to critically engage the discursive role of neo-liberal metaphors in ameliorating the tension of providing 'equal opportunities' between students who will undertake the university pathway and those who will have to undergo vocational training. Based on the interconnected discourses of opportunity-choice and opportunity skills through a more flexible system, the analytical development of these two simultaneous sub micro-meso-macro movements demonstrates how the playing field is levelled, and competition for society's occupations and academic progression is fair even for Vocational and Industrial Training Board Act (VITB) trainees.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Economy, Philosophy, Education, and 15 moreCritical Discourse Studies, Qualitative methodology, Qualitative Methods, Education (Social Policy), Critical Social Theory, International Political Economy, Education Policy, Critical Discourse Analysis, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Research (Education), Qualitative Research Methods, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Qualitative Methodologies, Educational Policy Studies, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
While Singapore’s education system claims to implement meritocratic ideals, official statistics indicate that Malay students in Singapore have been underperforming when compared to other ethnic groups (MOE 2012). This statistical... more
While Singapore’s education system claims to implement meritocratic ideals, official statistics indicate that Malay students in Singapore have been underperforming when compared to other ethnic groups (MOE 2012). This statistical representation raises the possibility of a politically induced, systemic inequality as a point of investigation. To investigate this seeming contradiction between the rhetoric and practice of equal educational opportunity, this paper proposes a philosophical and analytical synthesis for examining the 1979 policy report that provides the fundamental basis for Singapore’s streaming education system. In examining this policy development, the analysis draws upon a combination of Foucault’s archaeological method and Critical Discourse Analysis as a way of understanding conditions that made possible the continuous re-construction of new but unequal representation of learners. The findings suggest that complex relations between capability identification, justice, and ethics set the conditions for the appearance and transformation of subject positions necessary to legitimise unequal structural access.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Philosophy, Education, Critical Discourse Studies, Social Policy, and 15 moreResearch Methodology, Educational Research, Education (Social Policy), Discourse, Social Justice, Applied Linguistics, Singapore, Education Policy, Critical Discourse Analysis, Michel Foucault, Linguistics, Foucault (Research Methodology), Foucault power/knowledge - discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Meritocracy
Despite meritocratic claims of equal opportunity, official statistics released by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, reveal that a large segment of the Malay population has sustained the lowest academic achievement from 1987 to 2011.... more
Despite meritocratic claims of equal opportunity, official statistics released by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, reveal that a large segment of the Malay population has sustained the lowest academic achievement from 1987 to 2011. This statistical representation raises the possibility of a politically induced, systemic inequality as a point of investigation.
To investigate this seeming contradiction between the rhetoric and practice of equal educational opportunity, Nadira Talib analyses education policies by drawing on a synthesis of philosophical perspectives and critical discourse analysis as a way of making explicit how the historical constitution of the learner is linked to the legitimisation of inequitable education policies that favour corporatist practices. By making explicit how the underlying assumption of the policy ‘logic’ that increasing expenditure on ‘talents’ must necessarily involve the increasing welfare of everybody is both unsubstantiated and arbitrary, the book presents a moral political problem in demonstrating how education policies are unfounded and unsupported through the idea of meritocracy.
To investigate this seeming contradiction between the rhetoric and practice of equal educational opportunity, Nadira Talib analyses education policies by drawing on a synthesis of philosophical perspectives and critical discourse analysis as a way of making explicit how the historical constitution of the learner is linked to the legitimisation of inequitable education policies that favour corporatist practices. By making explicit how the underlying assumption of the policy ‘logic’ that increasing expenditure on ‘talents’ must necessarily involve the increasing welfare of everybody is both unsubstantiated and arbitrary, the book presents a moral political problem in demonstrating how education policies are unfounded and unsupported through the idea of meritocracy.