Governing child care in neoliberal times: Discursive constructions of children as economic units and early childhood educators as investment brokers

Abstract

At any given time in the field of early childhood, there are discourses at play, producing images of children, and these ways of seeing children might be competing, colliding and/or complementing each other. It is fairly widely accepted that in many countries there are versions of dominant discourses that shape and are shaped by current practices in the field of early childhood. These include (1) romantic notions of children running free and connecting with nature and (2) the 'Bart Simpson' version of the naughty, cute or savage child, untamed and in need of civilising. These are far from being the only two discursive constructions of children present in current policies and practices. If early childhood professionals are to be active in shaping and implementing policies that affect their work and workforce, it is important that they are aware of the forces at play. In this article, we point to another powerful discourse at play in the Australian context of early childhood education, the image of children as economic units: investments in the future. We show how a 'moment of arising' in contemporary policy contexts, dominated by neoliberal principles of reform and competition, has charged early childhood educators in Australia with the duties of a 'broker', ensuring that young children are worth the investment. In this article, we begin with (1) a key policy document in early childhood education in Australia and examine the discursive affordances which shape the document. Next, (2) we pinpoint the shifts in how the work of child care is perceived by interrogating this key policy document through a methodology of Downloaded from Gibson et al. 323discursive analysis. We then turn attention (3) to the work of this policy document along with other discourses which directly affect images of children and the shaping role these have on the work of educators. We conclude with (4) a consideration of how the work of early childhood professionals has come to be shaped by this economic discourse, and how they are being required to both work within the policy imperatives and likely to resist this new demand of them.

Mapping the Policy Landscape of Australian Early Childhood Education Policy through Document Analysis

“…To guide us in the management and analysis of this large data set, we turned to the methods of document analysis. Recent analyses of Australian early years policy have examined specific documents in detail (Gibson, McArdle & Hatcher, 2015;Logan, 2017); state-based adaptations of national curriculum in the early years, (Petriwskyj, O'Gorman & Turunen, 2013); and a number of the documents underpinning COAG reforms (Logan, Sumsion & Press, 2015). Internationally, document analysis has been used to examine mathematics education policy (Aubrey & Dahl, 2004) and comparisons of national curricula (Ärlemalm-Hagsér & Davis, 2014).…”

“…In focusing on these, discourse analysis can identify representations and tensions within the texts, exploring not only the terms used but also the implications of their use. For example, Fenech, Giugni and Bown (2012), and Gibson et al (2015) have used discourse analysis to examine how specific elements of Australian ECE policy documents have been used to present certain viewpoints as truths (Foucault, 1972). Other approaches to document analysis explore not only how the document/s came to have a particular structure and content, but also how they are used in social interactions.…”

The imaginaries that survived: Societal roles of early childhood education in an era of intensification

“…Early ECE policy research focused on mapping the different types of governance of ECE systems, policy choices that countries have made, and the discursive construction of policy documents (e.g. Gibson, McArdle & Hatcher, 2015;Neuman, 2005;Kamerman, 2000;Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 2007). Still, research has rarely investigated how ECE policy is practiced by people doing their everyday work.…”

Critical narrative as a framework for professional border crossing in early childhood

“…Early childhood education is in a continual state of flux, being shaped and reshaped by factors such as neo-liberal reform linked to competition and the commodification of children, political priorities, contemporary contexts, the globalisation of childhood, and changing social values and expectations (Gibson et al, 2015; Moss, 2014; Sumsion et al, 2009; Woodrow, 2007). Early childhood professionals are also embedded in sites of disruption and may experience resistance to the dominant discourses and entrenched assumptions which exist within these spaces (Kascak, 2013; Thomas, 2012).…”

“…In the postmodernist world in which the field of early childhood is positioned, educators, now more than ever, may experience points of tension and personal confrontation in ‘butting up’ against the panopticon gaze of regulatory bodies, various agendas, social expectations, neo-liberalist paradigmatic landscapes and ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions (Fenech and Sumsion, 2007; Gibson et al, 2015; Kascak, 2013; Woodhead, 2006). At times like these, educators may also be confronted by the pedagogical expectations and agendas of others, as well as their own interpretations and understandings of what is deemed ‘appropriate’ or ‘best practice’.…”