Pursuing Better Childhoods and Futures through Curriculum: Utopian Visions in the Development of Australia's Early Years Learning Framework

Abstract

In recent years, globalised curriculum discourses have given rise to local curriculum texts that convey and produce particularised imaginings and narratives, as well as hopes for, and expectations of, young children, their childhoods and their futures. In this article, the authors employ concepts from utopian studies and Deleuzeguattarian concepts of assemblage, rhizomes and lines (supple, rigid and lines of flight) to undertake a preliminary and partial rhizomatic mapping of utopian visions of better childhoods and futures evident in the development of the Early Years Learning Framework, Australia's first national curriculum for early childhood settings. Drawing on the perspective of policy makers, News Corporation, the public, politicians, academics and practitioners who shaped the development of the Framework, the authors seek alternatives to the well-rehearsed dichotomies that so often characterise and confine curriculum politics and debates, and ways of exploring spaces between the possible and not (yet) possible.

Governing the Brain: New Narratives of Human Capital in Australian Early Childhood Education

“…Then, by using the same analytical strategy, I describe the knowledge production associated with the neurosciences and draw out some considerations as to their possible effects when they entangle with human capital theory. Thus, the "findings" in this chapter are speculative and they aim to trouble the mostly unproblematic uptake and unfettered promotion (Sripada, 2012) of neuroscientific discourses in ECEC globally in general and in the Australian context in particular (see exemptions, e.g., Corrie, 2000;Einboden, Rudge, & Varcoe, 2013, in the health area;MacNaughton, 2004;Pykett, 2012, on geographies of contemporary educational practice; and Sumsion & Grieshaber, 2012, in the Australian ECEC).…”

Young children’s citizenship membership and participation: comparing discourses in early childhood curricula of Australia, New Zealand and the United States

“…The framework foregrounded discourses of children as agentic and community connected rights holders (Sumsion and Barnes 2010). However, the media interpreted this approach as 'training kids to be political activists' (see Letters [2009]), reflecting public contestation of a view of children as agential for its contrast to the nationally treasured trope of the innocent and vulnerable child (Sumsion and Grieshaber [2012]).…”

The performance of compliance in early childhood: Neoliberalism and nice ladies

“…If this policy is confirmed, early childhood professionals will need to demonstrate how all that they do with young children supports the development of literacy and numeracy. The Early Years Learning Framework in Australia may have begun with a different aim: ‘We anticipate that the Framework may also invigorate discussion and debate about alternative visions and courses of action, and offer ways of exploring spaces between the possible and not (yet) possible’ (Sumsion and Grieshaber, 2012: 241). However, that aim has been high-jacked by the pervasive neoliberal agenda as acknowledged by the developers:Nevertheless, there is a marked shift from the progressive tone of much of the initial Discussion Paper, which acknowledges children ‘as active members of society’ (Excerpt 1), to the investment in human capital focus of the Fact Sheet with its concern for ‘providing the most stimulus for brain development’ (Excerpt 8), which positions children above all as learners.…”

“…The shift could suggest capitulation to negative response from News Corporation and from some members of the public, and a retreat to the politically palatable side of an acutely felt dividing line. (Sumsion and Grieshaber, 2012: 239)…”