![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This article considers what the repercussions are when the concept of ‘quality’ is examined within the epistemological and ontological theoretical shifts that are afforded by post-humanism. In particular, Braidotti’s configuring of thinking as ‘nomadic activity’ and the need for ‘process ontology’, together with Massumi’s ideas relating to ‘activist philosophy’, create the necessary conceptual space for thinking differently. The article takes as a point of departure ethnographic data that has emerged from the twin locations of Norway and England, which broadly centres on some of the practices, habits and mundanities that are associated with Norwegian and English children (aged between two and four) eating food whilst attending their barnehagene or ‘preschool’ setting. It is within the milieu of eating that the authors take up the challenge of confronting ‘quality’, where they question whether it is possible to put to one side a universal standard so as to consider other potentialities. Inevitably, the authors conclude with more questions than answers.
References
|
Andrews, P, Atkinson, L, Ball, SJ. (2014) OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide – academics. The Guardian, 6 May. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-damaging-education-academics (accessed 14 August 2015). Google Scholar | |
|
Ball, SJ (2003) The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy 18(2): 215–228. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Ball, SJ (2008) The Education Debate. Bristol: Policy Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Braidotti, R (2006) The ethics of becoming imperceptible. In: Boundas, C (ed.) Deleuze and Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 133–159. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Braidotti, R (2009) Meta(l)flesh. In: Detsi-Diamanti, Z, Kitsi-Mitakou, K, Yiannopoulous, E (eds) The Future of the Flesh: A Cultural Survey of the Flesh. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 241–262. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Braidotti, R (2011) Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosie Braidotti. New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Braidotti, R (2013) The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Buchanan, A, Ritchie, C (2004) What works for troubled children? Available at: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_works_for_troubled_children__-_summary_1_.pdf (accessed 14 August 2015). Google Scholar | |
|
Calman, LJ, Tarr-Whelan, L (2005) Early childhood education for all: A wise investment. Available at: http://web.mit.edu/workplacecenter/docs/Full%20Report.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Connolly, WE (2002) Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture, Speed. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Dahlberg, G, Moss, P, Pence, A (1999) Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Postmodern Perspectives. London: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G (1990) Negotiations 1972–1990. New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G, Guattari, F (1988) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2012) Early years foundation stage. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2015a) 2010 to 2015 government policy: Childcare and early education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-childcare-and-early-education Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2015b) 2-year-old early education entitlement: Local authority guide. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/2-year-old-early-education-entitlement-local-authority-guide Google Scholar | |
|
Dolphijn, R (2004) Foodscapes: Towards a Deleuzian Ethics of Consumption. Delft: Eburon. Google Scholar | |
|
Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Gertz, C (1973) The Interpretations of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Harvey, D (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar | |
|
Hooper, L, Abdelhamid, A, Moore, HJ, et al. (2012) Effect of reducing total fat intake on body weight: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. BMJ 345: e7666. Available at: http://www.bmj.Com/Content/345/Bmj.E7666 (accessed 14 August 2015). Google Scholar | |
|
Kant, I (1784) What is enlightenment? Available at: http://www.constitution.org/kant/enlightenment.html Google Scholar | |
|
Katz, J (2000) How Emotions Work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Kellner, D, Lewis, T (n.d.) Liberal humanism and the European critical tradition. Available at: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/libhumanism.pdf (accessed 14 September 2015). Google Scholar | |
|
Lekhal, R (2013) The relationship between children’s attendance in Norwegian childcare centers and language and behavioral development during early childhood. PhD Thesis, Oslo University, Oslo. Google Scholar | |
|
MacLure, M (2011) Qualitative inquiry: Where are the ruins? Qualitative Inquiry 17(10): 997–1005. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Manning, E, Massumi, B (2014) Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Massumi, B (1988) Translator’s Foreword: Pleasures of philosophy. In: Deleuze, G, Guattari, F (eds) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. ix–xvi. Google Scholar | |
|
Massumi, B (2002a) Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Massumi, B (ed.) (2002b) A Shock to Thought: Expression after Deleuze and Guattari. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Massumi, B (2008) The thinking-feeling of what happens: A semblance of a conversation. Inflexions 1.1 “How is Research-Creation?”. Available at: www.inflexions.org Google Scholar | |
|
Massumi, B (2011) Semblance and Event: Arts of Experience, Politics of Expression. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Massumi, B, Zournazi, M (2002) Navigating moments: A conversation with Brian Massumi. In: Zournazi, M (ed.) Hope: New Philosophies for Change. Sydney: Pluto Press, pp. 210–243. Google Scholar | |
|
Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (2009). St.meld. nr. 41 (2008–2009) Kvalitet i barnehagen. White Paper, Quality of Kindergartens in Norway. Available at: https://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2197014/PDFS/STM200820090041000DDDPDFS.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
OECD (2013) Quality Matters in Early Childhood Education and Care. Norway: OECD Publishing. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264176713-en Google Scholar | |
|
Office for Standards in Education (2010/11) The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills (2010/11). London: The Stationary Office. Google Scholar | |
|
O’Sullivan, S (2001) The aesthetics of affect: Thinking art beyond representation. Angelaki 6(3): 125–134. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Patton, P (2005) Deleuze and democracy. Contemporary Political Theory 4: 400–413. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Pink, S (2001) Doing Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research. London: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Public Health England (2014) The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/obesity-and-healthy-eating (accessed 14 August 2015). Google Scholar | |
|
Rossholt, N (2009) The complexity of bodily events through an ethnographer’s gaze: Focusing on the youngest children in preschool. Contemporary Issue in Early Childhood 10(1): 55–65. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Rossholt, N (2012a) Children’s bodies in time and place: An ontoepistemological approach. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology 3(2). Epub. DOI: 10.7577/rerm.487. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Rossholt, N (2012b) Food as touch/touching the food: The body in-place and out-of place in preschool. Educational Philosophy and Theory 44(3): 323–334. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Steinnes, G, Haug, P (2013) Consequences of staff composition in Norwegian kindergarten. Nordic Early Childhood Education Research Journal 6: 1–13. Google Scholar | |
|
Thrift, N (2008) Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Trippestad, TA (2009) Kommandohumanismen: en kritisk analyse av Gudmund Hernes’ retorikk, sosiale ingenii ingen og utdanningspolitikk [Command humanism: a critical analysis of Gudmund Hernes’ rhetoric, social engineering and education policy]. Bergen: University of Bergen. Google Scholar | |
|
UNICEF (2000) Defining quality in education. In: International Working Group on Education, Florence, 13–16 June 2000. Google Scholar | |
|
Waldegrave, H (2013) Quality childcare: Improving early years childcare. Available at: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/category/item/quality-childcare-improving-early-years-childcare Google Scholar | |
|
Watson, D (2004) Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words: Contemporary Clichés, Cant and Management Jargon. Australia: Random House. Google Scholar |
Author biographies
Liz Jones is Chair Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Her research interests include poststructuralist theory; feminist theory; social constructions and deconstructions of ‘the child’ and ‘childhood’. More recently, she has become interested in posthumanism, especially in relation to the work and workings of affect.
Nina Rossholt is an Associate Professor at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Education and International Studies, Department of Early Childhood Education, Norway. Her research interests are around politics of bodies, materiality, gender and age in education and practice.
Thekla Anastasiou successfully secured a PhD scholarship from the Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Her research focuses on young children’s behavior in relation to food. The work is underpinned by Actor Network Theory (ANT) which allows for rich and fine-grained understandings of the processes and relationships that flow between children, food, eating, bodies and other materials. Thekla is also engaged in a range of teaching activities at MMU, which she combines with teaching Greek at several community schools in the Greater Manchester area.
Rachel Holmes is Professor of Cultural Studies of Childhood in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research activities work across the interstices of applied educational research, social science research and arts-informed research. She is immersed in a range of theoretical positions that include, for example, postmodernism, feminist post-structuralism, and more recently, posthumanism and new materialism(s).
