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Tacit Discipline in Early Childhood Education

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Values Education in Early Childhood Settings

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Abstract

This chapter highlights and problematizes tacit discipline in early childhood education. Based on findings from a Nordic project about values and values education, two issues concerning discipline are outlined and discussed. The first issue refers to the findings that discipline is negatively viewed and also neglected in the educators’ talk about values education. This is discussed in relation to what this might mean for the communication of discipline in educational practice. The second issue is related to the finding that the communication of discipline is often of a friendly and implicit character, in which children are treated as rational subjects. This raises questions about the relationship between discipline and democracy, which is discussed from the perspective of Habermas’ theory about communicative action. The discussion covers both the need of discipline in a democratic society and the risk of a colonization of the life world if discipline gets too much space. By highlighting both the opportunities and the limitations of tacit discipline in early childhood education, the chapter contributes to a nuanced and multifaceted picture of how discipline and power structures between educators and children can take place in early childhood education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The research project Values Education in Nordic Preschools : Basis of education for tomorrow, Project No. 53381.

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Acknowledgments

The study is part of the research project “Values education in Nordic preschools – Basis of education for tomorrow,” funded by the NordForsk research program “Education for Tomorrow” (project number 53581).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Linneaus University, Kalmar, Sweden

    Anette Emilson

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  1. Anette Emilson
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Correspondence to Anette Emilson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Education, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

    Eva Johansson

  2. School of Education, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

    Anette Emilson

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Anna-Maija Puroila

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Emilson, A. (2018). Tacit Discipline in Early Childhood Education. In: Johansson, E., Emilson, A., Puroila, AM. (eds) Values Education in Early Childhood Settings. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75559-5_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75559-5_16

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