The Practice of Care of Self through Performance Management in the Regime of Neoliberal Governmentality

From the perspective of neoliberal governmentality, this study sets out to investigate the linear relation from agency to performance through a survey of junior-high-school teachers’ (n=2,319) attitudes toward performance management. While this linear relationship is documented, the best model of the SEM analysis shows that intermediates positively mediate this linkage. It also distinguishes a theoretical path for the six factors, commencing from self-consciousness, technologies of agency, human capital, international competitiveness, to responsible subjects and finally technologies of performance. Unlike the Western literature, self-discipline serves as the primary element calibrating respondents’ perceptions of performativity. As this unique feature, resulting from Chinese culture, objectifies teachers’ subjectivities, self-discipline is embedded within the agency-performance association carrying out the mission of human capital discourse.