Abstract
ABSTRACT During her time as US Education Secretary (2017–2020), Betsy DeVos deployed specific naming practices in her speeches and public statements in service of a neoliberal educational agenda. Using discourse analysis, I explore framing and categorization as linguistic phenomena, and highlight the role words play in shaping political and cultural outcomes. Although the paper offers only a snapshot of DeVos’s framing strategies, her speech is part of a broader populist discourse that embraces an unrelenting “othering” of political opponents through emotionally charged rhetoric that seeks to accelerate private intervention in public schools. Through careful lexical choices and naming practices, DeVos builds a worldview that seeks to inform macro-level educational narratives, policies, and practices.
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