‘Crossing the Rubicon’: Strategic Planning or Neo-Biopower? A Critique of the Language of New Zealand's Early Childhood Strategic Plan

Abstract

Crossing the Rubicon -what are we planning for in Early Childhood Education?Strategy is a word that has had an increased currency in recent years. It is a word that is used in organisational studies to set out the primacy of good business decision-making, in foretelling risk and opportunity. It has been used by government in policy documents, where medium and long-term goals are set out, for example the New Zealand government's policy document Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education -pathways to the future. Michel Foucault's methodology of genealogy is used in this study to trace the origins of the term strategy, its use in organisational studies, and its relevance to education, specifically Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. The study by Richard Whipp into the effectiveness of strategic planning is also used to problematise such a term as an oxymoron.The study problematises some naturalised assumption of the image of people, of time, and of analysts' reflexivity. It asks about the use of terms that originated in military lexicon, but are now seen as good business practices. However, traces of the original military intent remain in terms such as manoeuvres, strategy, target, plan and risk. Foucault inverted the phrase that politics is war by any other means, as institutions centralised control, and set up supervision of populations, and collected statistics to plot changed patterns. This paper examines some of the tracery that remains in such use of governmental language, and asks if this is the most appropriate lexicon for education.

‘Social investment’ as political economy of education: Recent changes in early childhood education in New Zealand

“…Human Capital Theory (HCT) arguments are evident in media releases and policy briefs: Education, it is argued by HCT theorists, leads to improved economic outcomes, can solve inequalities and grow national wealth (e.g. Carneiro and Heckman, 2003; Heckman, 2000, 2011; Keeley, 2007; for critique, see Stuart, 2009, 2016). Both axes of the ‘individual : state’ prosperity can be addressed: Economically, the returns to human capital can be understood in terms of the prosperity, both the individual’s and that of the national economy … The question of care and education for very young children is attracting increasing interest.…”

“…Human Capital Theory (HCT) arguments are evident in media releases and policy briefs: Education, it is argued by HCT theorists, leads to improved economic outcomes, can solve inequalities and grow national wealth (e.g. Carneiro and Heckman, 2003;Heckman, 2000Heckman, , 2011Keeley, 2007; for critique, see Stuart, 2009Stuart, , 2016. Both axes of the 'individual : state' prosperity can be addressed:…”

Potential liabilities: Social investment policy as biopolitics in New Zealand – An examination of the National Coalition government’s welfare policies

“…I set out a genealogy of the tactics, strategies and mechanisms (see Stuart, 2009) used by National Governments to shift the discourse concerning beneficiaries, which by the conclusion of the 2014–2018 government had become hegemonic.…”

“…To use Foucault’s analogy, the Better Public Service and Social Investment goals utilized ‘war-like techniques’ and ‘tools that set up winners (and their différend , losers); of bodies of people working in formation with a single purpose’ (Stuart, 2009: 171). The National Government’s discourse was underpinned by the assumption that the beneficiary will identify with the model of the taxpayer as in her best interests, which will ultimately benefit everybody as they form themselves on the approved model.…”

Can we cast away Crusoe? A search for other edu/economic-leaderships

“…Now, in this sense value seems to be identical with the final degree of utility of a commodity … there is a close connection between value in this meaning, and value as ratio of exchange. (Jevons, 1871: p. 80) Economics, too, draws on such themes, with individual entrepreneurs winning out, while their foot soldiers' work remains unacknowledged (Stuart, 2009). Daniel Defoe's book Robinson Crusoe was a 1719 fictional account of an (entrepreneurial) shipwrecked sailor, surviving alone on his talents and salvaged goods.…”