What is "Human Capital"?

Within capitalism, it is common practice to invest in capital, in the hopes of accruing more capital (wealth). When applied to humans, the theory of human capital suggests that an individual is born with a certain amount of capital (i.e. physical and intellectual predisposition), and that an individual can invest in themselves in order to acquire more human capital. For instance, an individual can choose to invest in themselves in a myriad of ways (i.e. furthering their formal education, acquiring training, maintaining and promoting their health, etc.). In turn, the theory of human capital purports that this investment will lead to the ability to acquire more wants and needs (exchange value of investment). Additionally, organizations and governments may support increasing the value of their human capital for their own interests (i.e. human resources at KIPP schools). Thus, institutions and governments within neoliberalized spaces and places desire people that have and choose to acquire more human capital.

What is "Human Capital"?

Person A graduates high school and obtains a four-year business degree. Person B obtains a traditional diploma and works at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. According to the theory of human capital, Person A, that obtained the business degree, would be more productive, because they have more human capital, due to the advanced degree. In theory, therefore, Person B should also make more money.

On its face, this example may seem like an accurate assessment. However, the theory of human capital ignores the importance of context. Did Person A use their degree? Did Person B obtain professional development and move up the corporate ladder? Should it matter? Are we only worthy of what we can produce? Specifically, the theory of human capital reduces the meaning of human existence, so that we can only be constituted in market terms. It encourages us to see people as ‘things’ that can be quantified and manipulated to promote industry instead of recognizing people as whole humans.

We know that students do not have total control of their lives (i.e. where they live, where they go to school, etc). If we assume that the theory of human capital is correct, wherein there are very specific ways to succeed (i.e. passing Eurocentric standardized tests that are oriented for white, middle class students), then students that are unable to meet the milestones of ‘success’ will be blamed for ‘their’ inadequacies. The theory of human capital absolves systems and discourses of their power and influence over students’ lives, deflecting attention to the failure or success of the individual. What are the implications of this? This line of thinking ignores all of the underlying problems that precede our classrooms, thereby releasing systemic oppression of its role. This is quite dangerous for education. It becomes easier to ignore and/or blame students for their situations, instead of recognizing how these situations came to be. Additionally, it has the potential to organize people based on their ‘value’ (i.e. a social hierarchy/order, eugenics).

How does this Concept Relate to Neoliberalism?

Within a neoliberal framework, privatization and deregulation are essential, as they support capitalist market structures. Capitalist market structures depend on competition within the United States. In turn, the theory of human capital supports competition, as individuals compete as market actors to have the most capital, in a given society. Thus, in order to be successful within a neoliberal society, the individual must ‘choose’ to get an education to acquire the requisite knowledge and skills to perform post-graduation. However, this does not tend to end after college. This appears to be a lifelong political project; continued education -be it informal or formal--is expected of each individual, so that they may stay on the cutting edge. If they do not compete well, then neoliberalism labels the individual as a failure, irrespective of context.

Arguably, the concept of human capital is rather problematic. A society that promotes the theory of human capital recognizes that there will be winners and losers. Unfortunately, with the privatization and deregulation that has occurred across society, the individuals that are failing are being left to fend for themselves. It becomes hard to invest/build human capital, when the social structures only benefit a small percentage of the population (i.e. the 1%). Within the context of education, students are only worthy if they enhance their economic value, be it test scores or certifications or workplace readiness skills. They are reduced to being entrepreneurs of themselves first, as students, later as workers; in some cases, they become conditioned through schooling, due to a multitude of forces (which I delineate below).

How does this Concept Relate to Education?

"Children are the future!" The future what? Cogs in the wheels of the economy? Our society has traditionally accepted multiple goals of education, such as development of the child, preparing workers for the economy and citizens for a democratic society, and individual socioeconomic mobility. However, the normalization of the valuation of humans as a form of capital seeks to marginalize all goals except the creation of a productive workforce to the margins of mainstream discourses in education. Currently, there are many ways in which human capital as a theory and framework is intertwined with education, be it at the local, state, or national level.

High Stakes Testing

• High stakes testing is a form of gatekeeping for the acquisition of human capital. For example, students' ability to perform on high stakes testing is linked to their ability to continue their formal education and how they will be tracked. This could occur with an end of year assessment, graduation test, Advanced Placement (AP) test, or SAT score. Furthermore, due to standardized tests being geared towards white, middle class norms of education, it disadvantages anyone that cannot assimilate well enough or fast enough. Therefore, students of color and in poverty tend to perform worse, and they may not be able to access or participate in their own "investment."

Mission Statements

• “Ensuring all students graduate: Ready for College. Ready for Work, Ready for Life” (Walker County Schools). This mission statement focuses on student ‘readiness’ to acquire more labor skills or enter the workforce. There is no attention on morals or values, let alone other purposes of public education, such as critical thinking or democracy.

Professional Development

• Educators are constantly laboring to improve their own human capital and to help students accumulate their own human capital via professional development. For instance, a teacher may participate in professional development on literacy, which increases a teacher's human capital, as they acquire more knowledge, potentially improving the quality of their teaching (which also reflects well on the school).

• There is PD that targets particular ‘populations.’ It may instruct educators how to work with particular populations, such as students in poverty, who are tracked to become underpaid wage labor. This may look like sitting through a Ruby Payne course on the mythical ‘Culture of Poverty,’ which conceives poverty as a monoculture that can be ‘dealt’ with.

• Professional development may be geared towards improving test scores as they affect students’ grades and graduation, which can impact students' plans post-graduation.

Curriculum

• In many economic courses, the theory of human capital is explicitly taught without any criticality. For example, the Georgia Standards for Excellence in economics explicitly delineates that students learn to “Define and give examples of productive resources (i.e. factors of production): natural resources (i.e. land), human resources (i.e. labor and human capital), physical capital and entrepreneurship. “ It is assumed as normative, perpetuating the belief that an aim of education and society is self-entrepreneurship.

Data Collection

• School leaders compile data on cognitive ability and move children/children ‘up’ and ‘down’ the scale, be it their lexile score or high stakes testing scores. This can be on a spreadsheet, a government database, or a data wall. There are many creatively insidious ways in which human capital is portrayed with data.

• Data is also usually collected for behavior. For example, the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model is found within schools across the country. PBIS targets specific behaviors as good or bad, depending on the desired results and positionality of administrators. This is also usually tied to school goals, which may be tied to the aforementioned mission statement or funding needs. Students that consistently violate school norms may be tracked and even given a number ID for infractions (that was my experience).

Tracking

• Students take course loads depending on what schools expect they will do after graduation (which is usually based off of data). Usually, the students are told they have a choice, but schools usually group students by ability. Parents and students can self-advocate, but that takes time and energy. For example, a student may be in co-taught courses, on-level courses, or advanced courses. Students tracked within co-taught and on-level courses are expected to obtain jobs that are considered more ‘manual,’ which is code for the ‘working class.’ Students that take advanced courses are tracked to go to university and obtain work in fields that do not perform manual labor and focus primarily on intellectual labor. This is a classist, sexist, racist system that maintains the equilibrium of human capital, so that there are enough laborers for industry.

What can you do about it?

There are ways to resist thinking with and acting out the theory of human capital. You may already be doing it! Neoliberalism and the theory of human capital may be at work, but it is also important to note that they may not. Neither are totalizing. Here are some ways to operate outside of them:

• Respect yourself and your students as whole people. Take time to get to know them outside the parameters of what you teach. And because this is reciprocal, it can be helpful if you share about yourself. You are also worthy of being recognized as a whole human.

• Help students understand that there is more to life than punching the clock and making money. This can be done by focusing on knowledge or skills or passions that are not directly correlated to the job market.

• You can undermine the theory of human capital by teaching students that they do not always have to be busy. Being busy is not the same thing as being productive. ‘Bell to bell’ instruction is not necessarily effective or humane. It could be that taking a break is actually better for students and teachers, whether this has any measurable outcome or not.

• You can actively teach what the theory of human capital is and ask students to complicate it. This can be done with one of the sources/resources below, be it through the implementation of a discussion prompt or inquiry, or whatever best fits your context and students needs.

Teacher Resources

Articles, Podcasts, Images & Videos:

World Bank Aims to Shame With ‘Human Capital’ Ranking (The Wall Street Journal)

• This article showcases the way that human capital theory has been weaponized by the World Bank against countries that are impoverished (arguable due to imperialism and colonialism, which the World Bank has been a part of). Specifically, it explores how the World Bank indexes (video by the World Bank listed below) how much their populations are ‘worth’ based on how much their countries ‘invest’ in them with education, healthcare, etc.