Abstract
At both national and global levels, instrumental, human capital logics are seen to dominate contemporary rationales for the investment in, and expansion of, early childhood education (ECE) (Farquhar & Fitzsimons, 2013; Stuart, 2013). In scholarly commentary, primarily economic rationales for investment in ECE are often related with standardized conceptions of curriculum. Standardization is typically seen to derive from psychological understandings of universal developmental stages (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007) or from “schoolified” emphases on discrete knowledge and skills (Lee, Carr, Soutar, & Mitchell, 2013). A common critical response to these developments is to advocate for early childhood pedagogies that foreground diverse forms of learning, children’s participation, and voice. Such approaches are often framed as offering an unambiguous and positive alternative to dominant instrumental logics. Moreover, a pedagogical focus on the child as a competent, and what is often described as “agentic,” learner is advanced by advocates as a move toward a more democratic form of ECE (Mitchell & Carr, 2014).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Biesta, G. (2013). Interrupting the politics of learning. Power and Education, 5(1), 4–15.
Buchanan, E. (2011). Assessment in New Zealand early childhood education: A Foucauldian analysis. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/handle/10063/1691
Carr, M. (1998). Assessing children’s experiences in early childhood: Final report to the Ministry of Education. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Carr, M. (2001). Assessment in early childhood settings: Learning stories. London: Paul Chapman.
Carr, M., Jones, C., & Lee, W. (2005). Beyond listening: Can assessment practice play a part? In A. Clark, A. T. Kjørhol, & P. Moss (Eds.), Beyond listening: Children’s perspectives on early childhood services (pp. 129–150). Bristol: Policy Press.
Carr, M., & Lee, W. (2012). Learning stories: Constructing learner identities in early education. London: Sage.
Carr, M., May, H., & Podmore, V. (1998). Learning and teaching stories: New approaches to assessment and evaluation in relation to Te Whāriki: Symposium for8th European Conference on Quality in Early Childhood Settings, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, September 1998. Wellington: Institute for Early Childhood Studies, Victoria University of Wellington.
Carr, M., Smith, A. B., Duncan, J., Jones, C., Lee, W., & Marshall, K. (2009). Learning in the making: Disposition and design in early education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Carter, M. (2008). From critique to possibility: New Zealand’s radical approach to assessment. In A. Pelo (Ed.), Rethinking early childhood education (pp. 119–120). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. R. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation. London: Routledge.
Drummond, M. J. (2003). Assessing children’s learning (2nd ed.). London: David Fulton.
Duhn, I. (2006). Cartographies of childhood: Mapping the modern/global child (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Auckland. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2292/375
Farquhar, S. (2008). Narrative identity: Ricoeur and early childhood education (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Auckland. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2625
Farquhar, S., & Fitzsimons, P. (2013, December 6–9). Starting strong III: Unpacking the metaphor. Paper presented at the Measuring Up: Proceedings of the 43rd PESA Annual Conference Melbourne.
Farquhar, S., & Fleer, M. (2007). Developmental colonisation of early childhood education in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. In L. Keesing-Styles & H. Hedges (Eds.), Theorising early childhood practice: Emerging dialogues (pp. 27–49). Castle Hill: Pademelon Press.
Fendler, L. (2001). Educating flexible souls: The construction of subjectivity through developmentality and interaction. In G. Dahlberg & K. Hultqvist (Eds.), Governing the child in the new millennium (pp. 119–142). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Fendler, L. (2010). Michel Foucault. London: Continuum.
Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. In H. L. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (pp. 208–226). Brighton: Harvester Press.
Graham, L. J. (2011). The product of text and “other” statements: Discourse analysis and the critical use of Foucault. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 43(6), 663–674.
Hatherly, A., & Sands, L. (2002). So what is different about learning stories? The first years: Ngā Tau Tuatahi. New Zealand Journal of Infant and Toddler Education, 4(1), 8–12.
Hedges, H. (2013). The future of Te Whāriki: Political, pedagogical and professional concerns. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (pp. 277–298). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Hultqvist, K. (2004). The traveling state, the nation, and the subject of education. In B. M. Baker & K. E. Heyning (Eds.), Dangerous coagulations?: The uses of Foucault in the study of education (pp. 153–187). New York: Peter Lang.
Lee, W., Carr, M., Soutar, B., & Mitchell, L. (2013). Understanding the Te Whāriki approach: Early years education in practice. New York: Routledge.
MacNaughton, G. (2005). Doing Foucault in early childhood studies: Applying post-structural ideas. New York: Routledge.
McCulloch, G. (1992). Introduction. In G. McCulloch (Ed.), The school curriculum in New Zealand: History, theory, policy and practice (pp. 9–25). Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
Mills, S. (2003). Michel Foucault. London: Routledge.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopunao Aotearoa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2004). Kei Tua o te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early childhood exemplars. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2009). Te Whatu Pōkeka: Kaupapa Māori Assessment for Learning: Early childhood exemplars. Wellington: Learning Media.
Mitchell, L., & Carr, M. (2014). Democratic and learning-oriented assessment practices in early childhood care and education in New Zealand. Early childhood care and education working papers series. Paris: UNESCO.
Mutch, C. (2003). One context, two outcomes: A comparison of Te Whāriki and the New Zealand curriculum framework. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te W h āriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (pp. 111–130). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Nuttall, J. (2003). Exploring the role of the teacher within Whāriki: Some possibilities and constraints. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (pp. 161–186). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
O’Farrell, C. (2005). Michel Foucault. London: Sage.
Olssen, M., & Morris Matthews, K. (Eds.). (1995). Education, democracy and reform. Auckland: New Zealand Association for Research in Education in conjunction with the Research Unit for Maori Education, Education Dept., University of Auckland.
Paki, V. A. (2007). Kimihia, rangahaua ngā tikanga heke iho he taonga huahua e riro mai. Exploring whakapapa as a tool towards a kaupapa Maori assessment framework in early childhood education. Unpublished master’s thesis. University of Waikato, Hamilton. Retrieved from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2285
Pufall, P. B., & Unsworth, R. P. (2004). The imperative and process forrethinking child hood. In P. B. Pufall & R. P. Unsworth (Eds.), Rethinking childhood (pp. 1–21). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Rameka, L. K. (2011). Being Māori: Culturally relevant assessment in early childhood education. Early Years, 31(3), 245–256.
Ritchie, J. (2003). Te Whāriki as a potential lever for bicultural development. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (pp. 79–110). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Ritchie, J. (2013). Te Whāriki and the promise of early childhood care and education grounded in a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (2nd ed., pp. 141–156). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Simons, M., & Masschelein, J. (2008). The governmentalization of learning and the assemblage of a learning apparatus. Educational Theory, 58(4), 391–415.
Smith, A. B. (2007). Children’s rights and early childhood education: Links to theory and advocacy. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 32(3), 1–8.
Stuart, M. (2013). A trinity of saviours—parent, teacher and child: Human capital theory and early childhood education in New Zealand. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(4), 51–57.
Te One, S. (2003). The context for Te Whāriki: Contemporary issues of inf lu-ence. In J. Nuttall (Ed.), Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice (pp. 17–48). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Tuschling, A., & Engemann, C. (2006). From education to lifelong learning: The emerging regime of learning in the European Union. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 38(4), 451–469.
White, E. J. (2009). Assessment in New Zealand early childhood education: A Bakhtinian analysis of toddler metaphoricity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Retrieved from http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/198069
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2015 Theodora Lightfoot-Rueda and Ruth Lynn Peach
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Buchanan, E. (2015). Economistic Subjects: Questioning Early Childhood Pedagogies of Learning, Participation, and Voice. In: Lightfoot-Rueda, T., Peach, R.L. (eds) Global Perspectives on Human Capital in Early Childhood Education. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137490865_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137490865_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56201-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49086-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)