Michel Foucault: Problematising the individual and constituting ‘the’ self

Abstract

This article states that the concept of time we generally hold is a spatial version of time.However, a spatial time concept creates a series of problems,with unfortunate consequences for education.The problems become particularly obvious when the spatial time concept is used as a basis for the education function that is connected to the individuality of the pupils. In order to examine this problem more closely, the article turns to literature in order to get a new and different insight into education. In part four of the novel Ada or Ardor: A family chronicle (1969) the Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov claims, by way of the protagonistVanVeen, that a spatial notion of time will lead to a determinate and reduced view of the future. Not only does one in this way sweep the very notion of time under the carpet, but one will moreover hinder the possibility of appearing as a unique and individualised person.Van is preoccupied with a pedagogic question: viz., the question of how one can become individualised through time.This is also the reason he attempts to re-create a time concept that can give him the status of a free and independent individual. With a background in Van’s analysis of time, the article attempts to derive two forms for education. First, formal education, which bases itself on a spatial time concept. Secondly, non-formal education, which bases itself on a time concept that has freed itself in the greatest possible manner from space. Neither of these two solutions is appropriate in regard to education’s individualising function. Therefore, the article draws on Nabokov’s best-known novel, Lolita (1955), so as to broadenVan’s understanding of time. In the end, then, the article articulates a time concept that introduces a notion of education where time occurs through acts of responsibility. Not until education has such a time concept as a basis, can one, so the article argues, attain the education function that has as its goal to individualise and make responsible children and young people.     

Between ‘enrichment’ and ‘endangerment’: ‘cultural diversity’ and the politics of belonging in the Berlin school choice discourse

Even though choice is not officially a feature in the German primary school system, some parents intervene in determining which school their child attends. Especially in urban contexts, the informal school market is growing. This demand is based on promises with respect to a certain quality of education as well as on issues that prevail in certain inner city schools. In looking at Berlin, as a global city, this article shows how contrary school choice practices gain traction in the face of ‘cultural differences’ that those practices produce discursively. Cultural semantics are activated with regard to the composition of the student body, when parents chose schools with a bilingual profile, but also when parents engage in the practice of ‘group enrolment’ into schools in inner city hotspots perceived as problematic. Our research shows how school choice practices may become acceptable despite being a public taboo, if parents argue by appeal to ‘cultural differences’.     

‘Wrighting’ the self: new technologies and textual subjectivities

The expression of the self through multimodal texts is a central theme in education. While it has been suggested that new technologies act as important mediators in the relationship between texts and subjectivity, the mechanisms underlying such mediation has been a neglected topic of research. This paper considers the theoretical assumptions upon which speculation so far has been based and explores the methodologies that are best suited to investigating further the relationships between text, self and technology.     

Employing discourse: universities and graduate ‘employability’

What constitutes graduate employability is discursively framed. In this paper we argue that whilst universities in the UK have long had an involvement in producing useful and productive citizens, the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher education has engendered a discursive shift in definitions of employability. Traditionally, universities regarded graduate employment as an aspect of institutions’ relationship with the labour market, and one where they enjoyed a significant degree of discretion. Now, employability is a performative function of universities, shaped and directed by the state, which is seeking to supplant labour markets. We argue that this has three profound implications. First, state intervention in labour markets adjusts power balances in favour of employers. Second, contrary to the legitimising rationale of enhancing social justice, pursuit of employability agendas may well be creating two tiers of universities – those that produce docile employees and those that produce employers/leaders. And third, employability discourses may be adversely affecting pedagogies and curricula, to the disbenefit of students, institutions, employers, social justice and civil society.     

‘Snapchat’, youth subjectivities and sexuality: disappearing media and the discourse of youth innocence

Research on youth subjectivities and disappearing media is still in its infancy. Ephemeral technologies such as Snapchat, Frankly and Wickr offer young people opportunities for discursive agency, harnessing teenage discourses of social positioning. These media facilitate social mobility in teen peer contexts by providing a medium for dynamic and shifting relationships. The transmission of digital images can enable a social flexibility that has a significant impact on youth subjectivities where discursively constructed relational identities are brokered through cyber technologies. We tackle the question ‘what discourses are evoked and produced in the discussion of disappearing social media?’ by exploring two parents’ accounts of their children’s use of this media. We also examine a discourse of innocence that surrounds teens’ use of social media and, in particular, ephemeral applications, by sexting and cyberbullying. We engage in the debate on the use of ephemeral social media to consider the discourses influencing youth subjectivities and the nature of networked publics.     

‘Snapped’: researching the sexual cultures of schools using visual methods

Visual methods are often marginalised in educational research and have not been employed to collect information about sexuality at school. This paper examines the viability and effectiveness of conducting research about the ‘sexual cultures’ of schools in New Zealand using photo‐diaries and photo‐elicitation. ‘Effectiveness’ is judged by what the visual methodologies literature purports are the benefits of these methods. These advantages include providing participants with greater autonomy over what and how data is collected. The paper argues it is feasible to employ visual methods to research sexuality in schools. Such methods offer participants alternative means of recounting their stories, can help illuminate an esoteric object of investigation like ‘sexual cultures’ and engage participants less likely to volunteer for sexuality research. The use of visual methods is not without challenges however. Securing ethics approval and school participation along with problems with camera retrieval and protecting participant agency were some difficulties encountered in the current study. For those wishing to pursue less conventional research methodologies in educational settings, this discussion highlights potential benefits and struggles.     

The ‘self‐interested’ woman academic: a consideration of Beck's model of the ‘individualised individual’

The work of Ulrich Beck, particularly his concept of the ‘individualised individual’, is increasingly cited by educational social scientists. As yet, there have been few empirical investigations that consider how applicable and relevant is the notion of the ‘individualised individual’ in understanding how people make sense of their lives (for an exception, see Reay, 2003 Reay, D. (2003). A risky business? Mature working‐class women students and access to higher education. Gender and Education, 15(3): 301–317. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). This paper considers Beck's assertion that social class is of increasingly less importance as society shifts from a first to a second modernity. Interviews were carried out into the career experiences of a group of academic women working in higher education institutions. The conclusions reached suggest that if Beck's theory is to be useful in understanding contemporary actors in contemporary societies then the critical concepts he introduces need to be articulated by researchers in more complex ways.     

Language,discourse and teaching the language arts: The development of imaginative self‐understanding

Paul Ricoeur asks that we conceive of the imagination less in terms of visual images than in terms of language. He develops this idea as part of the hermeneutic work of interpreting literary texts and posits that the world disclosed by the literary work provides a space for the imaginative consideration of new possibilities for the self. I describe some principles for educating children in a literary tradition that may assist in the development of linguistic expression and self‐understanding. Furthermore, some suggestions are made concerning the education of language arts teachers in this regard.     

‘It is the research of self experience’: feeling the value in action research

This article tells the story of an attempt to bring about major educational reform of the curriculum and educational values in Kazakhstan, using action research as part of that process. The article begins with a brief and selective review of the literature on aspects of emotion and moves to an account of the context and history of the reforms, before focusing on the ‘self experience’ of the participants and the authors. Emotion, its centrality and the interrelationship of three areas – the nature of teaching and teacher learning, the process of change and the experience of research – are explored in relation to reform and action research. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications for the use of action research as a strategy for reform.     

Finding the next ‘wave’ in internationalisation of higher education: focus on Malaysia

This article presents a case study of Malaysia’s inroad in internationalising its higher education system for the past three decades and proposes recommendations and the way forward in internationalisation. Internationalisation is one of the critical agenda in Malaysia’s higher education transformation with an end target of becoming an international hub of higher education excellence by 2020. The country is no stranger in internationalisation as efforts in student mobility, academic programmes and international collaboration have started since the 1980s and 1990s. As with other higher education systems globally, it was the private sector that initiated and sustained efforts in internationalisation of Malaysian higher education. With the growth in international student enrolment, the country has established itself as a student hub; however, greater focus and clarity in direction should be set forward in accelerating Malaysia’s progress in internationalisation, with research and development as a potential catalyst. The article also questions Malaysia’s current standing with regard to internationalisation and the need in facilitating higher education institutions to build their capacity in internationalisation, highlighting the important roles of individual institutions at both public and private sector that drive the country’s internationalisation agenda.     

Resisting images of the ‘diminished self’: the implications of emotional well‐being and emotional engagement in education policy

Developing people’s emotional well‐being and emotional engagement are official aims in social policy. A growing number of initiatives respond to diverse, often contradictory public, political and professional concerns about individuals’ emotional needs. These concerns are a powerful discourse in ‘personalised learning’.

The article contributes to debates in critical policy research. It evaluates the subtle ways in which policy initiatives to develop emotional well‐being and encourage emotional engagement with public services resonate with images of the ‘diminished self’ emerging in broader cultural discourses. Critical evaluation is necessary in order for researchers and educators committed to social justice to challenge the influential idea that emotional well‐being should be a prominent educational goal and to resist the diminished images of human potential that underlie it.     

The logic of history in ‘gap’ discourse and related research

The Closing the Gap in Indigenous Disadvantage policy emerged in 2008 following the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. The policy articulates one of its purposes as being to address historical injustices. On the other hand, policy reform is naturally oriented to the future in its aims to improve and develop. These temporal tensions are the analytical focus of this article. Through examining the way in which the logic of ‘history’ is engaged in Australian Indigenous policy and related ‘gap’-oriented research, a range of political effects are illuminated. It is argued that the logic of history is deployed in three key ways: (1) history as over; (2) history as a single presence; and (3) history as context. In mapping these different orientations to history in the policy and literature, the following questions are asked: how might history be better understood as operating in the present and what sort of transformational possibilities might this afford?     

Building and destroying students’ ‘academic identities’: the power of discourse in a two‐way immersion classroom

Two‐way immersion is a model for bilingual education designed to help language‐minority students develop additive bilingualism while at the same time offering language‐majority students a chance to learn a second language. There is a great deal of rhetoric around two‐way immersion that claims these programs aim to improve overall equity among diverse groups of learners. The article begins with a brief review of the available research on two‐way immersion education. Then, using Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue and Bourdieu’s and Gee’s ideas of discourse/Discourse, this article takes a close‐up look at the discourse patterns in one second‐grade two‐way immersion classroom in Northern California, with an eye to uncovering how the teacher deliberately attempts to expose students to ‘alternative’ discourses and to lead language‐minority students to construct positive identities as learners. The ultimate question the article attempts to address is whether and to what extent any classroom program can create lasting change in the larger society through exposing students to ‘alternatives’ to mainstream dominant discourses within the context of classroom norms and activities.