Silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production of the ‘normal’ in the early childhood classroom

Karen Watson; Zsuzsa Millei; Eva Bendix Petersen

doi:10.37291/2717638X.20201236

Authors

Karen Watson The University of Newcastle Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-1888
Zsuzsa Millei Tampere University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4681-6024
Eva Bendix Petersen Roskilde University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4583-6007

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.20201236

Keywords:

Category boundary work, Inclusion, Taboo, Poststructural, Normal, Early childhood, Ethnography

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to better understand and trouble the discursive (re)production of what is taken as the ‘normal’ in ‘inclusive’ early childhood classrooms. We do so by exploring the practices of the ‘including’ group, the so-called ‘normal, in relation to or in the presence of those who are variously labeled as ‘non-normal’. We highlight those mechanisms that are associated with silence and taboo, and through which the including group produces and maintains itself. We present data produced during a six-month ethnographic study in three early childhood classrooms in Australia. Using the notion of category boundary work in the analysis, we illuminate the practices of silence: ‘ignoring’, ‘moving away’, ‘turning away’ and ‘keeping silent’ through which children undertake the category work of the ‘normal’. The effect of this category work, we argue, is that disability or the diagnosed subject becomes ‘the elephant in the room’, strongly present but avowedly ignored. We draw out some considerations for practice in the concluding part of the paper.

References

Alderson, P. (2008). Children as Researchers: Participation Rights and Research Methods. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices (2nd ed., pp. 276-290). New York: Routledge.

Allan, J. (2010). The sociology of disability and the struggle for inclusive education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(5), 603-619. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.500093

Arthur, J., Powell, S., & Lin, H-C. (2014). Foundations of character: methodological aspects of a study of character development in three- to six-year-old children with a focus on sharing behaviours. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(1), 105-122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2012.707413

Atherton, F. & Nutbrown, C. (2013) Understanding Schemas and Young Children: From Birth to Three. SAGE Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526435866

Beazley, S. & Williams, V. (Eds.) (2014). Childhood and disability: Key papers from disability and society. United Kingdom: Routledge.

Blaise, M. (2005). Playing it straight; uncovering gender discourses in the early childhood classroom. New York: Routledge.

Blank, J., & Schneider, J.J. (2011). "Use Your Words": reconsidering the language of conflict in the early years. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(3), 198-211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2011.12.3.198

Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology. East Sussex, U.K: Routledge.

Butler, J. (2004). Undoing Gender. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203499627

Cannella, G. S. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice & revolution. New York: Peter Lang.

Christensen, P. (2004). Children's participation in ethnographic research: Issues of power and representation. Children and Society, 18(2), 165-176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.823

Cologon, K. (2014). Preventing inclusion? Inclusive early childhood education and the option to exclude. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 15(4), 378–381. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2014.15.4.378

Connolly, P., Smith, A., & Kelly, B. (2002). Too young to notice? The cultural and political awareness of 3-6 year olds in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Community Relations Council.

Dalkilic, M., & Vadeboncoeur, J. A. (2016). Regulating the child in early childhood education: The paradox of inclusion. Global Studies of Childhood, 6(1), 17–30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610615619982

Davies, B. (1983). The role pupils play in the social construction of classroom order. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 4(1), 55-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0142569830040104

Davies, B. (1989). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Davies, B. (1993). Shards of glass: Children reading and writing beyond gendered identities. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Davies, B. (1998). The politics of category membership in early childhood settings. In N. Yelland (Ed.), Gender in Early Childhood. (pp. 131-148. London: Routledge.

Davies, B. (2006). Identity, abjection and otherness: Creating the self, creating difference. In M. Arnot & M. Mac an Ghaill (Eds.), The Routledge Falmer Reader in Gender and Education (pp. 72-90). London: Routledge.

Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1999). Positioning and Personhood. In R. Harré & L. van Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning Theory: Moral contexts of ıntentional action (pp. 32-52). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Davis, J. M. & Watson, N. (2001). Where are the children’s experiences? Analysing social and cultural exclusion in ‘special’ and ‘mainstream’ schools. Disability and Society, 16(5), 671-687. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590120070060

Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge.

Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, P. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press Limited.

Ferfolja, T. (2008). Discourses that silence: teachers and anti-lesbian harassment. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 29(1), 107-119.

Ferreira, J M. (2018). Inclusive early childhood education and the role of peer interaction: Brazil and Finland in dialogue (Unpublished PhD thesis). Tampere University Press, Tampere, Finland.

Foucault, M. (1967). Madness and civilisation: A history of ınsanity in the age of reason. London: Routledge.

Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Pantheon.

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. London: Penguin.

Foucault, M. (2008). The history of sexuality: The will to knowledge volume 1. U.S.A.: Penguin Group.

Graham, L. (2006). Caught in the Net: A Foucaultian interrogation of the incidental effects of limited notions of "inclusion". International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(1), 3-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110500173217

Graham, L. J., & Slee, R. (2008). An Illusory Interiority: Interrogating the discourse/s of inclusion. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40(2), 277-293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00331.x

Grieshaber, S., & McArdle, F. (2010). The trouble with play. New York: Open University Press.

Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (Eds.). (1999). Positioning Theory: Moral contexts of ıntentional action. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Harwood, V. (2006). Diagnosing 'disorderly' children; A critique of behaviour disorder discourse. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203481936

Harwood, V. (2010). Mobile asylums: Psychopathologisation as a personal, portable psychiatric prison. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 31(4), 437-451.

Hedegaard Hansen, J. (2012). Limits to inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), 1-10.

James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press.

Jarrett, O., French-Lee, S., Bulunuz, N., & Bulunuz, M. (2010). Play in the Sandpit: A University and a Child-Care Center Collaborate in Facilitated-Action Research. American Journal of Play, 3(2), 221-237.

Koster, M., Nakken, H., Pijl, S.J., & van Houten, E. (2009). Being part of the peer group: A literature study focusing on the social dimension of inclusion in education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13(2), 117-140. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110701284680

Laws, C., & Davies, B. (2000). Poststructuralist theory in practice: Working with "behaviourally disturbed" children. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(3), 205-221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390050019631

Leavitt, R. L., & Power, M.B. (1997). Civilising bodies: Children in day care. In J. Tobin (Ed.), Making a place for pleasure in early childhood education (pp. 39-75). Michigan: Edward Brothers.

MacArthur, J. (2013) Sustaining friendships, relationships, and rights at school. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(8), 793-811. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2011.602526

MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R., & MacRae, C. (2012). Becoming a problem: Behaviour and reputation in the early years classroom. British Education Research Journal, 38(3), 447-471. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2011.552709

Mazzei, L. A. (2007). Toward a problematic of silence in action research. Educational Action Research, 15(4), 631-642. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09650790701664054

McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J.E. (2007). Child development and education (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.

Millei, Z. (2005). The Discourse of control: Disruption and Foucault in the early childhood classroom. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 6(1), 128-139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2005.6.2.3

Millei, Z. & Cliff, K. (2014) The preschool bathroom: Making ‘problem bodies’ and the limit of the disciplinary regime over children. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(2) 244–262. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2012.761394

Nayler, J.M., & Keddie, A. (2007). Focusing the gaze: Teacher interrogation of practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11(2), 199-214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110600586268

Nutbrown, C., & Clough, P. (2009). Citizenship and inclusion in the early years: Understanding and repsonding to children’s perspectives on ‘belonging’. International Journal of Early Years Education, 17(3), 191-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760903424523

Petersen, E. B. (2004). Academic boundary work: The discursive constitution of scientificity amongst researchers within the social sciences and humanities (Unpublished doctorate thesis). University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.

Petersen, E. B. (2007). Negotiating academicity: Postgraduate research supervision as category boundary work. Studies in Higher Education, 32(4), 475-487. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070701476167

Petersen, E.B., & Millei, Z. (Eds.) (2016). Interrupting the psy- disciplines in education. London: Palgrave/Macmillan DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51305-2_1

Purdue, K. (2009). Barriers to and facilitators of ınclusion for children with disabilities in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 10(2), 133-143. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2009.10.2.133

Robinson, K. H., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2006). Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Education: Issues for theory and practice. New York: Open University Press.

Rose, N. (1999). Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (2nd ed.). London: Free Association Books.

Skattebol, J. (2010). Affect: A tool to support pedagogical change. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(1), 75-91.

Slee, R. (2010). Revisiting the politics of special educational needs and disability studies in education with Len Barton. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(5), 561-573. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.500089

Slee, R., (2013). How do we make inclusive education happen when exclusion is a political predisposition? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(8), 895-907.

Slee, R., & Allan, J. (2001). Excluding the Included: A reconsideration of inclusive education. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 11(2), 173-191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210100200073

Stronach, I., & MacLure, M. (1997). Educational Research Undone: the postmodern embrace. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Traweek, S. (1988). Beamtimes and lifetimes – The world of high energy physicists. London: Harvard University Press.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (1994). The UNESCO Salamanca Statement and framework for action on special educational needs. Paris: UNESCO.

Walkerdine, V. (1988). The mastery of reason: Cognitive development and the production of rationality. London: Routledge.

Watson, K. (2015). Interrogating the discursive constitution of the ‘normal’ in ‘inclusive’ early childhood education. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University Of Newcastle, Australia.

Watson K. (2017) Inside the 'inclusive' early childhood classroom: The power of the 'normal'. New York: Peter Lang. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b10726

Winderlich, K. (2012). Sensory play and learning (Vol. 10). Deakin West, A.C.T.: Early Childhood Australia.