Thriving and surviving? The incredible problem of constructions of normality and Otherness in early childhood settings

Abstract

This article explores what it means today for children to survive, thrive and reach their full potential-aspirations set out nearly 25 years ago as rights in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Espoused in the principles of the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand, the spirit and intent of these aspirations are undermined by a range of normalizing strategies endemic to The Incredible Years behaviour management programme imported to promote effective management of challenging behaviour in young children. We draw here on the philosophies of Julia Kristeva and Michel Foucault to question the normalization and consequent othering of children and childhoods, problematizing what it is to be 'normal'. We confront government 'solutions' for education driven more by economic rationality than by educational concern for the complexities of the early childhood context. Our analysis of the normalization of childhoods and the government of teachers as 'behaviour managers' culminates in a rupturing of normalizing networks and highlights possible resistances and openings, towards surviving and thriving, and potential.

Pursuing Justice-Driven Inclusive Education Research: Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) in Early Childhood

“…In effect, some well-intended early childhood programs and practices have served a “normalizing” function that aims to bring young children closer to widely accepted developmental norms using standardized disciplinary knowledge and practices (Antonsen, 2020; Arndt et al, 2015). Child Find legislation and eligibility assessment practices (e.g., assessments normed on primarily white populations, teacher referrals or reports that may reflect racial or cultural biases) are examples of how established developmental expectations used to identify children who may benefit from additional support can subject children to surveillance, categorization, or remediation (Baker, 2002; Ferri & Bacon, 2011).…”

Early childhood teacher cultural Otherness and belonging

“…Their call affirms this situation as exacerbating a gap in understanding teachers’ belonging, and elevates the importance of teachers’ attitudes and orientations towards not only children’s, but also their own and their colleagues’ cultural Otherness. Existing research – for example, that describes teachers’ approaches to diversity in their settings as grounded in an approach to fairness that promotes treating all Others the same (Rivalland and Nuttal, 2010) – perpetuates cultural normalizations and exacerbates already normalizing interpretations of policy or curriculum (Arndt et al, 2015; Cederman, 2008). This article provokes thinking about teacher diversity and belonging in ways that counter universalizing approaches to Otherness within early childhood settings.…”

Philosophical reimaginings of educational places and policy: Through the metaphor of a wardrobe

“…This ‘wardrobe’ lens helps us to rupture our perceptions of educational settings. It has been previously argued, that what is expected to be a smooth, supportive learning programme, can have detrimental, unsmooth, normalising or marginalising effects on individuals or groups (Arndt et al, 2015). Conceptualising education through the metaphor of the wardrobe offers new conceptual ruptures of the smoothness of educational spaces and places.…”