Changing Rationales For Governing the Child

A Historical Perspective on the Emergence of the Psychological Child in the Context of Preschool - Notes on a Study in Progress

Bibliographic Data

ID3104028
AuthorsKenneth Hultqvist (Stockholm Institute of Education, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume4
Issue4
Pages405-424
Publication date1997-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChildhood (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0907-5682 • E-ISSN: 1461-7013
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0907568297004004003
OpenAlexW2095239989
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited13

This article is about a period of transition (1920-40) in the history of the Swedish preschool when Friedrich Fröbel's discourse on the child, which was the major discourse in the early days of the preschool movement in Sweden, gradually became replaced by the discourse of developmental psychology. The article's major concern is with the issue of change in preschool discourse about the child. Using the Foucauldian theme of governmentality, the article argues that change in preschool discourse is related to the emergence of new rationales for governing the child. In addition, the article argues that a comparison with the child that emerged in the context of schooling during the 19th century, is essential for the understanding of the post-Fröbel discourse about the child. It is suggested that the child of the post-Fröbel period is in fact the product of a reinvention of the evangelical streams of thought of the 19th century

Aesthetics · Discourse analysis · Governmentality · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Gender Studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law

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