Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies: Applying Post-structural Ideas

This book draws on a broad range of poststructural and postcolonial thinkers, and pays particular attention to the intersections of race, class and gender. Within this theoretical framework, it shows the important contribution that Foucault and other poststructural theorists can make to research and practice in early childhood, as well as considering future directions that this application might take. The book uses research-based case studies, drawn from different countries, of practitioners and their work with children and parents. These show how researchers (including practitioners) have brought poststructuralisms into the classroom and used them strategically to reconstruct knowledge-power relationships in classroom practices and relationships. Five strategies of reconstruction are emphasised in these case studies: * Creating points of resistance to traditional early childhood discourses * Reconstructing pedagogical knowledges and practices and relationships * Privileging social justice andequity intents in practices and relationships * Attending to cultural relations and practices of gender, race and class * Producing new forms of collaboration between practitioners, children, the academy, parents and local community. The book will be of interest to trainers, researchers and practitioners who are seeking to develop an understanding of poststructural thinkers and their potential contribution as an important perspective on early childhood.

Glenda Mac Naughton is Associate Professor in Early Childhood and Director at the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood at the University of Melbourne