Health as A Cultural Discourse of Difference: Making the “Disadvantaged Child”

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Poster Session: Constructing Early Childhood Education: Ideologies, Influences, and Discourses

Abstract

This study critically examines how “health” was constructed and mobilized as a normative goal in the early years of Project Head Start. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopower and governmentality and Canguilhem’s theorization of health as normalization, the research explores how health discourse shaped notions of the “disadvantaged child.” Using sliding signifier and discourse analysis, it analyzes Head Start policy documents and debates from the 1960s–1970s. Findings reveal that health functioned not merely as care but as a tool of governance that reinforced social hierarchies. This work contributes to critical early childhood studies by denaturalizing health as an educational aim and calling for more reflexive, justice-oriented approaches in childhood policy.

Author

• Xue Yin, University of Wisconsin - Madison