The (in)competent child: Subject positions of deviance in Norwegian day-care centres

Abstract

In line with social studies of children and childhood, it is necessary to pay attention to local contextual understandings and practices in those places where constructions of children and childhood occur. The authors argue that the discourse of the competent child has become intertwined with a discourse of early intervention. In Norwegian day-care institutions, new practices of increased monitoring and evaluation of individual children have been observed. In this article, the authors explore day-care staff members’ descriptions of children who have not been formally diagnosed but who are positioned in between what is considered normal and deviating. While political documents stress the importance of early intervention and discovering special needs in the day-care setting, the authors suggest that this ‘discovery’ is context-bound, value-based and intertwined with ideas about children and childhood. From a study with day-care staff members, the following question is explored: ‘Which subject positions are present in day-care staff descriptions of children in between, and how do these positions legitimise the positioning of some children as deviating from perceived normality?’