Masquerade of Neoliberal Concepts Revealed: Self-Regulation Skills in Ontario’s Full Day Kindergarten Program

Abstract

This study examines an action research project that included four kindergarten teachers who taught in the first year of the Ontario’s mandated full day kindergarten (FDK) program, which began in September 2016. This action research project focused on the teachers’ concerns about the constant unsafe violence, bullying and disruptive behaviour that characterized their FDK classrooms, which led them to explore self-regulation skills. According to the FDK program developers and school administrators, self-regulation was the key to eliminating such difficult behaviours and actions. However, the findings of the action research study revealed there were many challenges in sustaining and having students understand self-regulation, and there was a disconnect between the theoretical understanding of self-regulation and the practical reality of how self-regulation was used in the classroom. The findings of this action research study bring forth an interesting argument: the practical use of self-regulation in FDK classrooms (un)consciously gives permission to the reach and subsequent impact of neoliberalism in schools.