Dominant discourses, why should we question them?

Early childhood education, and the education of children as a whole is engulfed in an arena of universal standards, limitations, and norms forming a dominant discourse based on scientific knowledge alone.   I feel that this discourse has become so familiar to us as educators that it is the only truth we know and rely on.  And one area in which I feel we can see the traces of this dominant discourse is in the governance of developmentally appropriate practice.  This is an area which I have been finding myself questioning more often, and wanting to further investigate its implications.  Are there other possibilities when we are able to move across its imposed boundaries?

For a quick reminder of the meaning of this practice, I turn to MacDonald’s (2007) description of a framework that compares the child to a set of norms and that allows practice to be seen as appropriate or inappropriate.  It is a guideline for educators to use and is based on developmental theory which she points out is a theory which creates “preoccupation with the child’s limits, stages, or classifications rather than the child’s potential…( p. 7).  What I find concerning is the fact that we as educators are not able to step away from this practice at any given time.  It really has become all we know or all that we feel we can know.   If we are solely relying on one type of knowledge, then are we not limiting children, normalizing children, objectifying children, and creating standards of appropriate and inappropriate, normal and abnormal behavior? 

What I am realizing, and wonder if others are too is that accepting the power of one set of truths can limit so much of what we do.  Without reflection of our practices and responsibility to the other, we are conforming to one set of universal rules, one way of being and the notion of sameness. How can this be a possibility in the world we live in?  How do we view our children?  How can we say that we are listening to children, ‘meeting their needs’ when we shut their ideas down and close off any possibilities for conversation?

 I would encourage educators to reflect on their practices and question this dominant discourse.  Let’s think about what restrictions are imposed, and what possibilities are banished when we do not make allowance for other likelihoods.   Foucault and Lather tell us that “Discourse reflects and generates power, serving as a mirror of particular ideologies and socially constructed norms” (as cited in Cannella, 2000, p. 38).  Educators get themselves into trouble when they follow only one discourse, one set of ideals, one set of being without ever questioning it or allowing room for other meanings.  What would happen if we drew upon the power of developmentally appropriate practice and used it to open up spaces for other ways of thinking, for other places of knowing? 

MacDonald, M. (2007).  Developmental theory and post-modern thinking in early

childhood education. Journal of the Canadian Association for Young Children, 32(2) 7-10.

Canella, G. (2000). The scientific discourse of education: Predetermining others - Foucault, education, and children. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1(1), 36-44. doi: 10.2304/ciec.2000.1.1.6