Imaginedcommuniesand …Millei...Whatisnaon? (crash!course)! Classicalor primordialist) views ^!ethno^naon!is!a community!of!origin!and! culture,!including!prominently! alanguage!and!customs!–we

Imagined communi-es and possible lives: Childhood, na-on

and a transna-onal world

Zsuzsa Millei The University of Newcastle

Throwing the Baby Out With the Bathwater 10 / Social JusBce in Early Childhood 2013

Social JusBce in Early Childhood Conference / 2013 2

Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (AGEEWR, 2009, p. 5): “All children have the best start in life to create a beWer future for themselves and for the naBon.” By 2020 and agreed in Early Childhood Development Strategy July 2009 by COAG

“More broadly, the Framework supports Goal 2 of the Melbourne DeclaraBon on EducaBon Goals for Young Australians , that: All young Australians become: • Successful learners • Confident and creaBve individuals • AcBve and informed ciBzens.”


hWp://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/diversity-‐is-‐australias-‐strength-‐and-‐thats-‐worth-‐celebraBng-‐together/story-‐e6fr`qf-‐1226562180668 Social JusBce in Early Childhood

Conference / 2013 4

First point •  In ECEC we use the noBon of ‘naBon’ as natural, obvious and

unproblemaBc – think of EYLF using the idea of naBon and naBonal or the words Australia and Australian. –  In what understandings and how do we use ‘naBon’ in relaBon to

children? –  Is the use so neutral – perhaps only marking a territory or a group of

people? •  For me it is not neutral, it has a lot to do with Foucault’s knowledge

and power •  In the first part of the paper I will look at

–  What are the effects when children are understood as ciBzens of a naBon state?

–  How does this understanding shik, if at all, as a reacBon to current policy frameworks that consBtute the child as a ‘world ciBzen’?


Second point •  NaBonality has a role in idenBty producBon and idenBty

producBon is related to state / naBon producBon

•  “promote in all children a strong sense of who they are and their connectedness to others – a shared idenBty as Australians” (EYLF, p. 23 and p. 34)

•  Moreover, naBon is perceived as a homogenous community –  How do ideas about the naBon’s past, present and future govern EC and children and make them responsible for the future of the naBon state?

–  How do discourses of the ‘naBon’ shape boundaries and relaBons between desire and duty, leader and people, naBonal idenBty and ethnic difference?

–  How does this regulaBon manifest in discourses of teaching and learning and shapes children’s ‘lived spaces’?

–  How do naBonal discourses orient children towards the job market? Social JusBce in Early Childhood

Conference / 2013 6

What is na-on? (crash course)

Classical or primordialist views -‐ ethno-‐naBon is a community of origin and culture, including prominently a language and customs –we belong because we were born here, we have the same language, tradiBon and culture (HasBngs 1997).


Modernist views -‐ placing the origin of naBons in modern Bmes (Gellner 1983).

An--‐realist or construc-vist views-‐ naBons are merely ‘imagined’ (Anderson 1965).

Development of Australia as a naBon


•  Development of a naBon – development of kindergarten •  Health of naBon – health of children -‐ naBon was conceptualized as a living organism “whose physical and mental health was linked to that of the children, who themselves in a state of flux, were its most crucial components" (Kociumbas, 1997, p. 131)

Emerging Australian naBonality

“The colonial child seen as Happy Young Australia by an arBst of the Australian Sketcher in 1875 is fat, contented, lucky, sok, untried; he has had it too easy. Young Australia, the idea depicted there, is a familiar term in the late 19th century, with a spectrum of meanings. It is used generally of children born in the colonies, perceived as anBtheses to the colonist, people born and nurtured here as against their immigrant parents. Young Australia means not merely a new generaBon but a new naBonality. Australia itself is perceived as young, in a way not appropriate to Europe” (Inglis, 1979, p.19).


Emerging Australian naBonality

“It was the East Perth centre where we made our first acquaintance with the Perth Kindergarten Union. The radiant faces of the babies, the smiling kindliness of the students, the whole air of contented obedience made one deeply realise the inesBmable work that is being done for the Empire” (Anonymous, 1924).


‘NaBonal’ work – motherhood and child care

•  Women have a moral obligaBon to give birth to new members of the naBon and to nurture them for the sake of the naBon, clashes with both the autonomy and the privacy of these women (Yuval-‐Davis 1997).

•  Moreover, diversity within the ethno-‐naBonal community can also be thwarted by the homogeneity of a central naBonal culture.



Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (AGEEWR, 2009, p. 5): “All children have the best start in life to create a beWer future for themselves and for the naBon.” By 2020 and agreed in Early Childhood Development Strategy July 2009 by COAG

A child’s rights to quality early childhood educaBon coupled with investment discourses produce children’s idenBty and the naBon in a relaBonal manner.

IdenBty (liberal individualism) and naBon

•  “States ParBes undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her idenBty, including naBonality, name and family relaBons as recognized by law without unlawful interference” (ArBcle 8 of the Conven>on on the Rights of the Child, 1989)

•  “what happens when a child’s right to idenBty and culture is used to jusBfy exclusion?” (Stephens, 1995, p. 10)

•  “children should have the rights not to be constrained within bounded and exclusionary naBonal idenBBes and not to have their minds and bodies appropriated as the unprotected terrain upon baWles are fought about the nature, range and future of naBons and naBonal idenBBes” (Stephens, 1995, p. 10).


Trans – naBonal world

•  Three interconnected processes: 1.  De – territorialisaBon – e.g. transnaBonal

families or internaBonal organisaBons 2.  Compression of Bme-‐space – e.g. images people

and money travel in short Bme 3.  PracBcal interconnectedness – local and global

cannot be separated anymore


Trans – naBonal world •  “Global integraBon and internaBonal mobility have

increased rapidly in the past decade. As a consequence, new and exciBng opportuniBes for Australians are emerging. This heightens the need to nurture an appreciaBon of and respect for social, cultural and religious diversity, and a sense of global ciBzenship” (Melbourne DeclaraBon, 2008, p. 4).

•  “in the “21st century Australia’s capacity to provide a high quality of life for all [Australians] will depend on the ability to compete in the global economy on knowledge and innovaBon” (Melbourne DeclaraBon, 2008, p. 4).

•  “sustain an imaginary that regards naBonal formaBons as inevitable, Bmeless and natural, territorially bounded and enBrely legiBmate” (Rizvi, 2006, p. 199)


NormaBve and evaluaBve danger!

•  Common imagining Be people together which can engender moral obligaBons.

•  Treatment of ethnic and cultural differences within a democraBc polity – common vs different.

•  Too liWle territory for all the candidates!


Child suicide bomber aWack high profile aid worker hWp://www.acworaustralia.com/arBcles/child-‐suicide-‐bomber-‐aWack-‐high-‐profile-‐australian-‐aid-‐worker

Cosmopolitanism ethics / learning

•  Cosmopolitanism is the view that one's primary moral obligaBons are directed to all human beings (regardless of geographical or cultural distance) – however I do not want to propose here cosmopolitanism as a universal moral principle

•  Rather as ethical responsibility for others (all others) (Bauman, 1993) or as its educaBonal facet cosmopolitan learning (Rizvi, 2009)


QuesBons for reflecBon and research

•  `What does na-on make of us?’ How do daily interacBons with the products and producBons of naBon act to shape our understanding of what we are, what we call ourselves, what we call each other, and who else are we like, as well as, what are our material circumstances?

•  How does “a naBon’s poliBcs becomes a child’s everyday psychology” (Coles, 1986)?

•  How do childhood experiences and memories come to funcBon as crucial resources for naBonalist sensibiliBes?



•  What are the implicaBons for society and the future when the spaces of childhood are systemaBcally governed by the interrelated discourses of the naBon, neoliberalism and capitalism? “Where can we locate the metaphors of hope” (Ndebele, 1995, p. 24)?

references •  Anonymous. (1924, 20 November 1924). The Onlooker, p. 10. •  Anderson, B., 1965, Imagined Communi>es, London: Verso. •  Bauman, Z. (1993). Postmodern Ethics. Malden, MA, Oxford, UK & Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing •  Coles, R. (1986) The Poli>cal Life of Children. Boston, Monthly Press. •  Gellner, E., 1983, Na>ons and Na>onalism, Oxford: Blackwell. •  HasBngs, A., 1997, The construc>on of na>onhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Na>onalism, Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. •  Inglis, K. S. (1979, 1981). Young Australia 1870-‐1900: The idea and the reality. Paper presented at the The Colonial

Child, 8th Biennial Conference of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Melbourne. •  Kociumbas, J. (1997). Australian childhood: A history. St Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin Pty Ltd. •  Ndebele, N. (1995) Recovering childhood: Children in South African NaBonal ReconstrucBon (321-‐334) In S.

Stephens Ed. Children and the Poli>cs of Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. •  Rizvi, F. (2006). ImaginaBon and the globalizaBon of educaBonal policy research, Globaliza>on, Socie>es and

Educa>on, 4(2), 193-‐205. •  Rizvi, F. (2009): Towards cosmopolitan learning, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Poli>cs of Educa>on, 30(3),

253-‐268. •  Stephens, S (1995) Children and the Poli>cs of Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. •  Yuval-‐Davis, N. (1997) Gender and Na>on. Sage


Documents

Imaginedcommuniesand …Millei...Whatisnaon? (crash!course)! Classicalor primordialist) views ^!ethno^naon!is!a community!of!origin!and! culture,!including!prominently! alanguage!and!customs!–we