This paper argues that normative conceptions of the child, as a natural quasi-human being in need of guidance, enable current school reforms in the United States to directly link the child to neoliberal aims and objectives. In using Foucault's concept of governmentality and disciplinary power, we first present how the child is constructed as a…

From a yearlong qualitative study, I propose an explanation for the growing frustration amongst educators and students who find their imaginings for a social justice education largely unmet, if not deliberately crushed, in the public school classroom. I argue that competing conceptions of social justice manifest as public performances as well as…