Browsing by Author "Nikkarikoski, Karoliina"

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract In this thesis, I examine the governance of children and families through early childhood education. In recent decades, early childhood education and childhood have received much international and research attention. With the emphasis on national competitiveness, investing in the early years of a child has begun to be seen as relevant from the perspective of investing in the future. Early childhood education practices have taken on new forms in an era of accountability, where new governance practices have taken over in the areas where they are not suitable from an ethical point of view. I’m Intrested in what tasks are defined for early childhood education in the early childhood education guidance documents and what assumptions about the child and childhood are produced in the early childhood education guidance documents. In reviewing my questions, I pay attention to how the tasks and assumptions are justified. The perspective of the study is determined by social change and the neoliberal ethos, which together form the framework and provide the discourses from which the child and family draw when outlining the possibilities and limitations of their lives. I limited my research material to two guidance documents on early childhood education, one of which is a national document obliging early childhood education and the other an international OEDC publication. I read my material using critical and power-recognizing readings that emerge from the way feminist poststructuralist research looks at knowledge. I have been inspired by Foucault’s analysis of power and research of governmentality. I used the concepts of power, governance, and subjectification to outline the discourse of early childhood education guidance documents. The tasks defined for early childhood education in the early childhood education guidance documents appear to be in response to intensifying international competition and change. Individual competence and self-responsibility have become key qualities to be supported in early childhood education and will also legitimize themselves as a promise of a better future. The results are partly inconsistent with the value base defined for early childhood education, where childhood is seen as an absolute value. At the end of my thesis, I suggest that a critical review of the ideals and elements of a dignified human life is needed, and I ask whether the transition from an enhanced childhood to a free, dignified, and humane childhood could be possible.