A infância governada: Educação infantil e subjetividade à luz do pensamento de Michel Foucault

Abstract

This study entitled ‘Governed childhood: early childhood education and subjectivity in light of Michel Foucault’s thought”, inserted in the Federal University of Uberlândia’s (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia) school of education, in the section of History and Historiography of Education investigated the production of a specific subjectivity of the child subject in Modernity, using as a basis Michel Foucault’s theory regarding biopolitics and governmentality. The methodology applied was that of bibliographic and documentary analysis, with the documentary compilation being the National Curricular Reference for Early Childhood Education (Referencial Curricular Nacional para a Educação Infantil - RCNEI), published in 1998, which is a document produced by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Brazil as a guide for the early childhood education process. Due to this, it was assumed that, in Brazil, from the 1980s onwards, a specific type of governmentality came into play, and the analysis of the RCNEI can locate and date the practices that objectify and subjectify the child as a political subject with rights and duties. In this context, children began to be comprehended as “little citizens,” and democratic governmentality was exercised over them. The analysis was based on Foucault’s theorization concerning biopower, operationalized from biopolitics and governmentality. Foucault’s theorization, with regard to research into the constituent elements of the child subject, becomes an indispensable tool for developing critical thinking about everyday practices within schools. The actions conducted by education professionals with children based on a curricular framework are part of the strategies conducted by power that, combined with knowledge, seeks to produce children’s subjectivities. The RCNEI analysis also highlights the concept of childhood inscribed in the document, and how the guidelines aim to produce a specific subjectivity. Finally, based on Foucault’s theorization about self-care, a type of resistance to biopolitics was identified. It was concluded that the process of formation of subjects is closely linked to education, especially early childhood education, and that normative documents, such as the RCNEI and the special contexts experienced in Brazil, and the world, were fundamental to support the governmentality of children, constructing child subjects based on pedagogical practices at the service of Modern States.