| Author: | Li, Boya |
| Title: | The responsibilized students : a critical analysis of “Heyclass” online education platform’s teacher promotion discourse |
| Advisors: | Curran, Nate Ming (ENGL) |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Department: | Department of English and Communication |
| Pages: | 56 pages |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This study examines the teacher promotion discourse of the Chinese online education platform “HeyClass”, adopting Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis framework. By integrating semi-structured interviews with teachers and staff members and conducting textual analysis of over 100,000 characters of platform materials, the research explores how the platform reconstructs the allocation of educational responsibilities through discursive strategies. Findings reveal three core discursive strategies: 1) “Tutors as Experts” through quantified credentials and qualifications; 2) “Students as Responsible Agents” by attributing learning outcomes to individual effort; and 3) “Tutors as Family Members” through simulated intimate relationships. These strategies work collaboratively to transfer educational responsibilities from institutions to individual students, forming a neoliberal “responsibilization” cycle. Additionally, emotional labor is instrumentalized as a commercial bonding agent, while the traditional Confucian concept of “self-cultivation” is alienated into a cultural foundation for responsibility transfer. The study aims to uncover the hidden mechanisms of responsibility transfer in online education, providing a new perspective for understanding the discursive power of digital education marketization. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8850.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 527.6 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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