Open Collections

Lee, Dana

University of British Columbia

Since 2017, British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (NDP) government has advocated for child care reform (e.g., a universal child care system), articulated in the ChildCareBC policy. Policy is understood as a practice of power aimed at producing a particular kind of society and mode of existence within that society. As such, policy defines a specific reality and tries to regulate norms and behaviour accordingly (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). Therefore, while the proposals appear promising, it is important to critically examine the narratives about children, early childhood, and child care that these policy documents draw upon and to what ends. Inspired by Foucauldian concepts of discourse, power, subjectivity, and governmentality, and using Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” approach (Bacchi, 2009), I examine the following questions: 1) What is the problem represented to be in ChildCareBC initiatives? What discourses are present in recent policy representations in British Columbia, Canada? 2) What are the implications of those problem representations for early childhood “provision”? 3) What kind of educational and social futures do the policy representations envision or project? What are the concerns about those futures? To “think problematically” involves identifying various problem representations in the documents and analyzing their assumptions and potential impacts. The analysis reveals that “quality child care” is the “problem” of concern in ChildCareBC, aligning “quality” with licensing, training, and accreditation of early childhood educators. The “child” is portrayed as an economic object, highlighting their role in facilitating adult labour participation for economic prosperity. “Child care” is produced as an investment with expected economic returns. Notably, the policy analyzed prioritize adult needs, consequently marginalizing the agency and rights of the child. The upshot is that early childhood educators are positioned as technicians responsible for shaping children into productive citizens for a predetermined “universal” future. I conclude that while addressing challenges in the child care sector is necessary, policy makers need to appreciate how current discourses position the child care sector, the child, and the carer, shaping perceptions and practices. The study calls for a renewed emphasis on the child as an agentic subject in child care policy initiatives.

Text

2024-08-22

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89003

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/