applying foucault slides

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Applying Foucault?

Putting theory to work in an

educational research project

Phil Cormack Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures

University of South Australia



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Framing the research problem1. The problem and research questions

2. Applying Foucault? Why, where, how?

3. Discourse

4. Subjectivity

5. Governmentality6. Selecting, managing and analysing the

data



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The problem and research

questionsThe work of both teachers and students in the middleand later years of schooling is made significantly moredifficult when students have not picked up literacy and

numeracy skills in their early years of schooling. A student who is struggling to read along with the class,or unable to spell, quickly loses concentration and self esteem. It is frequently the students with literacyproblems who 'play the fool ', which not only further

impedes their own learning, but disrupts the rest of the class as well. A downward spiral of behavioural problems leading to the early abandonment of formal schooling is the result. (Kemp, 1996, emphasis added).



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Figure 1.2: Middle school advertisement (1999, Oct 16 The Advertiser,

p.19)



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The problematisationProblematization is not the representationof a preexisting object, or the creation

through discourse of an object that doesnot exist. It is the totality of discursiveand non-discursive practices that bringssomething into the play of truth and

falsehood, and sets it up as an object forthe mind. (Foucault, quoted in Castel,1994, pp.237-238)



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ProblematisationThis development of a given into aquestion, this transformation of a group

of obstacles and difficulties into problemsto which diverse solutions will attempt toproduce a response, this is what

constitutes the point of aproblematization and the specific work of thought. (Foucault, 2000, p.118)



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My problemMy study began with a problem in thepresent —the tying together of

adolescence, schooling and English/literacy as a source of anxiety and as asite for programs of rescue —and

examined the way that this problem wasassembled historically



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DiscourseThe concept of discourse, in the Foucaultiansense, refers to the ‗controlling, positioning,

and productive capacities of signifying practices‘ (Threadgold, 1997, p.58). In this sense, adiscourse is a ‗group of statements whichprovide a language for talking about —a way of

representing the knowledge about —a particulartopic at a particular historical moment‘ (Hall,2001, p.72).



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The order of discourseDiscursive practices are characterized by a

‗delimitation of a field of objects‘, the definition

of a legitimate perspective for the agent of knowledge, and the fixing of norms of theelaboration of concepts and theories. Theireffect is to make it virtually impossible to think

outside them. To think outside them is, bydefinition, to be mad, to be beyondcomprehension and therefore reason.

Young, R. (1981). Introduction to 'The order of discourse' by Michel

Foucault. In R. Young (Ed.), Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader (pp. 48-51). Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.



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The order of discourseIt in this way that we can see how discursiverules are linked to the exercise of power; howthe forms of discourse are both constituted by,

and ensure reproduction of the social system,through forms of selection, exclusion anddomination. ‗In every society‘, Foucault writes,

‗the production of discourse is controlled,organised, redistributed, by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off its powersand dangers, to gain mastery over its chanceevents, to evade its materiality.

Young, R. (1981). Introduction to 'The order of discourse' by Michel

Foucault. In R. Young (Ed.), Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader (pp. 48-51). Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.



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Discursive practicesDiscourses are not just systems of representation, butthe basis of actions —discursive practices —that shapethe world and what is possible to do within it:

Discursive practices are characterized by thedelimitation of a field of objects, the definition of alegitimate perspective for the agent of knowledge, and

the fixing of norms for the elaboration of concepts andtheories. Thus each discursive practice implies a play of prescriptions that designate exclusions and choices.(Foucault, 1977, p.199)



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How did discourse help me

think about my problem? challenging previous theories about the ‗discovery‘ of adolescence (biological)

challenging previous theories about the ‗invention‘ of adolescence (critical-reconceptualist)

challenging meta-narratives of ‗progress‘, ‗redemption‘ or ‗apocalypse‘



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Explaining change…first, bracketing all the old forms of strainedcontinuity which ordinarily serve to attenuatethe raw fact of change (tradition, influence,

habits of thought, broad mental forms,constraints of the human mind), and insistentlymaking plain instead all the intensity of difference, establishing a painstaking record of deviation; second, bracketing all psychological

explanations of change (the genius of greatinventors, crises of conscience, the appearanceof a new cast of mind), and turning instead todefine as carefully as possible thetransformation which, I do not say provoked,

but constituted change. (Foucault, 1991b, p.56)



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Activating the theory of

discourseOne way of analysing a discourse is to consider

it as a process of ‗formation of objects‘.Foucault says this involves:

1. mapping the surfaces of emergence of theobject

2. describing the authorities of delimitation defining show can speak about the object

3. analysing the grids of specification used toclassify, group and hierarchise the object(Foucault 1972)



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SubjectivityThe human being is not the eternal basisof human history and human culture but

a historical and cultural artifact. (Rose,1998, p.22)



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How human beings are made ‗subjects‘ (Foucault 1986, p.208)

1. through being made into objects bydisciplines

2. through being objectivised by ‗dividingpractices‘

3. through turning himself or herself into

a subject



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Discourses speak us

[I]ndividuals come to speak as particularkinds of subjects —to speak themselves

into being —through speaking thediscourses that enable the particularinstitution. (Lee & Poynton, 2000, p.5)



18Foucault 1977



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Activating the theory of subjectivity

1. What labels, metaphors and titles were given to theolder child as a subject in the discourses of schooling and the English curriculum?

2. What dividing practices and grids of specificationwere used to group, differentiate or otherwiseidentify the older child as a subject in thediscourses of schooling and the English curriculum?

3. What invitations and practices were made availableto the older child for making themselves subject tothe discourses of schooling and the Englishcurriculum?



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Governmentality

The ensemble formed by institutions,procedures, analyses and reflections, the

calculations and tactics that allow theexercise of this very specific albeitcomplex form of power, which has as itstarget population, as its principal form of

knowledge political economy, and as itsessential technical means apparatuses of security. (Foucault, 1991a, p.102)



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Population

[F]rom the eighteenth century, new intellectualtechniques (political arithmetic, statistical survey)operating within new governmental institutions

(bureaus of economic management, public health,social assistance, public education) began to transformgovernment into a series of domain-specific ‗problems‘ open to expert analysis. ... it was in this sphere of ‗governmentality‘ that a pastoral school system could

present itself as an appropriate instrument fortransforming the capacities of the population into aproblem and object of government. (Hunter, 1994,p.28)



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Populational reasoning

By defining groups in particular ways and maintainingrecords that gave material qualities to the constructionof groups, populational reasoning ―normalized‖ certain

characteristics. What were socially constructed criteriaappeared in time as ―natural attributes‖ (e.g., ―racialcharacteristics‖). The historical and cultural specificity of the reasoning became submerged, and the appearanceof the criteria as ―natural‖ became reinforced through

scientific techniques that were built around gatheringdata about the attributes. (Baker, 1998, p.131)



23Foucault 1977



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Human technologies

Human technologies involve the calculated organizationof human forces and capacities, together with otherforces - natural, biological, mechanical – and artefacts –

machines, weapons – into functioning networks of power. Within such a composition, elements arebrought together that might appear, at first sight, tobelong to different orders of reality: architecturaldesigns, equipment and technical devices,

professionals, bureaucracies, methods of calculation,inscriptions, reformatory procedures and the like. (Rose,1999, p.8)



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Activating governmentality

Networks of:

human capacities

other forces (natural, biological,mechanical etc)

artefacts



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Analytic questions derivingfrom the theories

A genealogy of subjectivity along five pathways: Problematisations —where how and by whom aspects of the

human are rendered problematic? Technologies —the means and programs developed to govern,

shape humans Authorities —those who can speak the truth about human

problems Teleologies (the forms of life which are the ideals, exemplars

or aims for practices and programs for working on humans Strategies —procedures for regulating humans that are linked

to wider political, moral, social objectives and domains(adapted from Rose, 1998, pp.25-28).



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Beyond progress, redemption and theapocalypse —the concept of the dispositif

[P]rogrammes don‘t take effect in the institutions in anintegral manner; they are simplified, or some arechosen and not others; and things never work out asplanned. But what I wanted to show is that thisdifference is not one between the purity of an ideal andthe disorderly impurity of the real, but that in fact thereare different strategies which are mutually opposed,composed and superposed so as to produce permanentand solid effects which can perfectly well be understood

in terms of their rationality, even though they don‘tconform to the initial programming: this is what givesthe resulting apparatus (dispositif ) its solidity andsuppleness. (Foucault, 1991c, p.81)



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Data set

The Education Gazette (EG) published monthly by theEducation Department (1900-1929)

Curriculum documents including the Course of

Instruction for Primary Schools (CI), post-primaryschool courses, and the public examinations‘ syllabi.(1874-1929)

Parliamentary Papers (PP) of the South AustralianParliament (1874-1929)

Educational reports which were influential in South Australia in the planning of state education for theolder child (1880-1920)



Figure 7: Discursive fields constituting the older child as

j f i i S A i 1900 1929



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a subject of education in South Australia 1900-1929



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Teleologies

A parable

The Froebelian metaphor of education as a

form of gardening was linked to wider romantic beliefs in the naturalness of children that can be traced to Rousseau and Froebel. In the New Education the teacher became a kind of gardener of souls through sympathy and optimism. This parable was reproduced without preamble or editorial content in the 1920 Education Gazette (p.211)



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Human technologies - drill



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Human technologies – drill



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Human technologies – drill

To teach drillsuccessfully, the closest

attention to everyminute detail is asnecessary as in

conducting a writinglesson. (1885 SAGG ,p.120)

Figure 3: Writing lesson (1911 EG, p.49)



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Discourses

Programs

Effects

Past(s) Present(s) Future(s)

Green (2003)



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ReferencesBaker, B. (1998). "Childhood" in the emergence and spread of U.S. public schools. In T. S. Popkewitz & M. Brennan (Eds.), Foucault's Challenge: Discourse, Knowledge and Power in Education (pp. 117-143). New York: Teachers College Press.Castel, R. (1994). "Problematization" as a mode of reading history. In J. Goldstein (Ed.), Foucault and the Writing of History (pp. 237-252). Oxford:Blackwell.Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language (A. M. S. Smith, Trans.). New York: Pantheon Books.Foucault, M. (1977). History of systems of thought. In D. F. Bouchard (Ed.), Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews by Michel Foucault (pp. 119-204). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Foucault, M. (1986). The subject and power. In H. L. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (pp.

208-226). Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press.Foucault, M. (1991a). Governmentality. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (pp. 87-104).Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Foucault, M. (1991b). Politics and the study of discourse. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Foucault, M. (1991c). Questions of method. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (pp. 73-86).Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Foucault, M. (2000). Polemics, politics and problematizations: An interview with Michel Foucault. In P. Rabinow (Ed.), Essential Works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984 (Vol. 1, Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, pp. 113-119). London: Penguin.Green, B. (2003). (Un)changing English: Past, present, future? In B. Doecke, D. Homer & H. Nixon (Eds.), English Teachers at Work: Narratives,Counter-Narratives and Arguments . Adelaide: AATE/Interface & Wakefield Press.Hall, S. (2001). Foucault: Power, knowledge and discourse. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor & S. J. Yates (Eds.), Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader

(pp. 72-81). London: Sage Publications.Hunter, I. (1994). Rethinking the School: Subjectivity, Bureaucracy, Criticism . St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.Kemp, D. (1996, 21 June). A National Literacy Goal. Paper presented at the Australian College of Education Conference on General and VocationalEducation, Sydney.Lee, A., & Poynton, A. (Eds.). (2000). Culture and Text: Discourse and Methodology in Social Research and Cultural Studies . St Leonards, NSW:

Allen & Unwin.Mansfield, N. (2000). Subjectivity: Theories of the Self from Freud to Haraway . St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.Rose, N. (1998). Inventing Ourselves: Psychology, Power and Personhood . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Rose, N. (1999). Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self . London: Free Association Books.Threadgold, T. (1997). Feminist Poetics: Poiesis, Performance, Histories . London: Routledge.Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory . Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.

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