Abstract
Many chapters in this book deal with circulating global or international discourses about young children; this chapter is one of them.1 Focusing on the inclusion of young children in an educational policy, the Education Act 2002 from the United Kingdom, I look at circulating international discourses within it, while highlighting the ways in which local factors such as politics, culture, and history interplay with the effects of power that created, and are created by, this policy. I argue that the substantive developments in the field legislated by the Education Act 2002 are problematic and may propagate the same inequities that they are intended to solve. This is the case for educational reform in multiple contexts; the U.K. policy is the example I use in this chapter.
This chapter would not have been possible without the generosity of several colleagues: in the England contingent, thanks to Mrs. Elizabeth Coates of University of Warwick in Coventry for including me in her excellent courses and for her reflections on the changes in English early years policies; to Ms. Gee Fang Lee for sharing her experiences putting the policy into practice; and to Mr. Peter Edworthy for his sharply insightful yet gently offered comments. The responsibility for the use of the information they shared with me is entirely mine. Many thanks to Dr. Theodora Lightfoot, Dar Weyenberg, and Devorah Kennedy for their incisive editing and unrelenting support, and to the members of Thursday Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for their inspiration and patience. Finally, many thanks to Professor Marianne Bloch for her generous advising and mentoring.
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© 2006 Marianne N. Bloch, Devorah Kennedy, Theodora Lightfoot, and Dar Weyenberg
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Peach, R.L. (2006). The Foundation Stage Child in a Shifting Sea: A History of the Present of the United Kingdom’s Education Act 2002. In: Bloch, M.N., Kennedy, D., Lightfoot, T., Weyenberg, D. (eds) The Child in the World/The World in the Child. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601666_12
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