Masquerade of Neoliberal Concepts Revealed: Self-Regulation Skills in Ontario's Full-Day Kindergarten Program

• In Event: Action Research: Lessons Learned in K–12 Settings

Abstract

This paper presents and analyzes results of practitioner-based action research on integration of self-regulation practice in a full day kindergarten (FDK) program. The findings of this research are the basis for offering suggestions how to avoid manifestation of neoliberal aspects in this educational context. The paper argues that as kindergarten classrooms become more impacted by neoliberal scripted and standardized curriculum expectations that aim for self-regulation skills to become internalized by students, educators become (un)knowingly complicit in supporting a neoliberal governmentality approach to education. Thus, unconsciously, students are then seen as pawns that are deeply ingrained in the (in)visible larger process of neoliberalization of schools, which has damaging implications to their self-identity, autonomy, and potential aspirations to transform our society.

Author

• Manu Sharma, Thompson Rivers University