discoursology

Quote of the day from Thomas Popkewitz and Sverker Lindblad:

It is not race, gender or class that is the central concern of research, but the production of the race-ness, gender-ness or class-ness of individuality. (2000: 23)

And, indeed, the production of individuality itself.

In their paper they outline two sets of approaches to studying the relation between educational governance and social inclusion/exclusion. What they call the equity problematic largely adopts policy makers’ discourse, aiming to improve inclusion:

Policy research becomes bound to the policy makers’ definition of the problem, taking the categories and problem definitions derived from governmental policies as the problems of research without any serious intellectual scrutiny. (2000: 6)

In the knowledge problematic, on the other hand, the construction of the categories to identify inclusion and exclusion is the focus of research:

The problem is not only access and participation, but the rules through which divisions and distinctions qualify and disqualify individuals for action. (2000: 23)

Popkewitz, T., & Lindblad, S. (2000). Educational Governance and Social Inclusion and Exclusion: some conceptual difficulties and problematics in policy and research. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 21(1), 5-44. (Longer report can be downloaded here).