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From Subjectification to Subjectivity in Education Policy Research Relationships

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Discursive Perspectives on Education Policy and Implementation

Abstract

This chapter evaluates what a Foucauldian discursive approach brings to analysis of educational policy-related material. It focuses on a specific textual example from a local, UK-based study of educational impacts of welfare reforms. The statement, ‘Tell your professor we are good mothers’, is discussed in relation to four features: (1) the range of subject positions elaborated; (2) the incitement to ‘confession’ and investments in being seen as ‘good mothers’; (3) the articulation of a collective subjectivity that repudiates the surveillance and regulation of working-class communities; and (4) an ethical-political demand addressed to the researchers to challenge the dominant discourses to which this mother and others like her are subject.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Institute of Education, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Erica Burman

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  1. Erica Burman
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  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jessica Nina Lester

  2. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Chad R. Lochmiller

  3. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Rachael E. Gabriel

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Burman, E. (2017). From Subjectification to Subjectivity in Education Policy Research Relationships. In: Lester, J., Lochmiller, C., Gabriel, R. (eds) Discursive Perspectives on Education Policy and Implementation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58984-8_4

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