Genealogies of governmentality: Producing and managing young children and their education

Abstract

Genealogies, or histories of the present, create critical spaces to remind us of the nonnecessity of that which we consider necessary to our lives (Burchell 1993). Further, genealogies of governmentality attempt to create this space with a focus on how conduct is conducted. In this paper I suggest that genealogies of governmentality are one way to create critical analyses of the education of young children. Sociologies of childhood consider childhood to be a relational concept, functioning in relation to adulthood. I argue that genealogies are one way to illuminate these relationships, in particular pointing towards the ways in which the education of young children is deeply embedded in a range of complex and contradictory’ adult’ discourses and knowledges, including those of motherhood, politics, worker, citizen and the economy. To illustrate this I provide an analysis of the provision of preschool education in Queensland’s government schools.