Neo-liberalism at work and play in Early Childhood Education (ECE)

Setting the Scene

Play, Regulation and Resistance

The neoliberal emphasis upon standardisation and accountability in education poses particular challenges for play in early childhood. In the eyes of the state, play must earn its place in the classroom and, in a climate of performativity, justification for play must be made…

School readiness: A culture of compliance?

The discourse of ‘school readiness’ is prevalent in Early Childhood policy and I argue that neoliberalism is a structural force that has influenced the ‘school readiness’ agenda within an English educational context. This structural force is manifest via…

Contesting regimes of truth

The current landscape of early childhood education in the Republic of Ireland is fractured, with a somewhat unstructured, fragmented system. My research argues that this is due, in part, to a series of neoliberal practices. Foucault (2010) maintains that subjects are produced in…

Global mental health and therapeutic assemblages: concepts, controversy and necessary tensions

A two-day Conference

February 12–13th 2018, University of Sheffield UK