Rocking the Cradle of Wealth. Human Capital Theory and Early Childhood Education in New Zealand, 1999-2008
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Cradle and all; rocking the cradle of wealth. Human Capital Theory and Early Childhood Education in New Zealand, 1999-2008. Margaret Joan Stuart A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Education 2011 Acknowledgements I wish to thank, firstly my supervisors, Dr. Nesta Devine and Dr. Maria Humphries for their constant support. My past employer, Waikato Institute of Technology supported me in a range of ways. Thanks to the librarians, Shirley Rive and Anu Sundar who sourced inter-loan articles. To Winnie Arntsen, and John Wells who supported me with the complexities of Endnote, my thanks. Thanks too, to the Research Committee, for opportunities to attend writers’ retreats and take some time in 2009, away from teaching, for deep reflection. Trish Clokie has assisted me in wresting my wavering concepts into a much more disciplined script. My recent employer, Te Tari Puna Ora ō Aotearoa, has been very supportive of my completion of this work. Friends who have proofread drafts, including Libby Clements, Sue Moorfield and Lesley Rameka, have my deep gratitude. I thank Jilly Tyler, Manager, Early Childhood Education, Ministry of Education, Auckland, for permission to use the PowerPoint of her 2004 conference presentation, The big picture. Finally, to my family, especially husband Selwyn, for his faith in me. To the other three males in my immediate family – sons Dugald and Calum, and mokopuna Seth (not forgetting his mother, Lana), who spent tireless energy distracting me from the work of this thesis. ii Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. ii Figures and tables .................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ................................................................................................................................. viii 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The ‘value’ of policy advice ..............................................................................................4 1.2 The discourse of human capital theory (HCT) ..................................................................7 2 Theoretical bases ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Genealogy: the methodology ........................................................................................ 24 2.2 Human capital theory: a ‘problem of the present’ ........................................................ 36 3 ‘Third way’ solutions to socio-economic problems ..................................................................... 42 3.1 A rupture in the perception of education: the Fourth Labour Government ................. 43 3.2 The ‘third way’ in New Zealand: the Fifth Labour Government (1999–2008) .............. 46 3.3 SPECE: ‘third way’ construction of bodies ..................................................................... 48 3.3.1 ‘The Big Picture’ .................................................................................................... 57 3.3.2 ‘Getting People Together in Early Childhood Education’ ....................................... 61 3.3.3 ‘Travelling Pathways to the Future’ ....................................................................... 64 4 Changing constructions of child, mother and teacher over the twentieth century ...................... 71 4.1 ‘The Race marches forward on the feet of Little Children’ ........................................... 77 4.2 Philanthropy as governmentality: the establishment of kindergartens ....................... 80 4.2.1 Normative maternal expectations ......................................................................... 81 4.3 The ‘truth’ of experts ..................................................................................................... 82 4.3.1 Who should get to preschool? .............................................................................. 84 4.3.2 The positivity of educational duty ......................................................................... 87 5 Micro-econometrics: a twenty-first-century intrusion into the soul of the family ....................... 90 5. Heckman: Invest + Develop + Sustain = Gain .................................................................... 93 5.1.1 Tools of economic imperialism: the ‘promise’ of micro-econometrics ................. 94 5.2 Multi-disciplinary data supports early intervention ...................................................... 98 5.3 ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ ................................................................................... 99 5.3.1 Ethico-politics: the responsibilisation of ethnic communities ............................ 102 iii 5.3.2 Neighbourhoods as growing social capital .......................................................... 103 5.3.3 The ‘war on poverty’: embodying salvation in the child ..................................... 108 6 Ethics of care – ‘just’ rights ....................................................................................................... 111 6.1 Herkunft: a genealogy of economic struggles ............................................................. 115 6.1.1 Interstices of ‘race’ and policy ............................................................................. 118 6.1.2 Philanthropy: care for the ‘other’? ...................................................................... 122 6.1.3 Rights and responsibilities: English social contracts............................................ 127 6.2 Guiding morals ............................................................................................................. 129 6.2.1 Fraternal wealth: the purposes of trade in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe ............................................................................................................................. 131 7 Constructions of individual and state in eighteenth-century political œconomy ....................... 134 7.1 Malthus: decrying human intervention in providential population balance .............. 141 7.1.1 Prophylactic solutions to weaknesses in the body politic ................................... 143 7.1.2 Searches for evolutionary laws............................................................................ 145 7.2 Value: what is the individual worth to the state? ....................................................... 147 8 Enstehung: emergence of economic science ............................................................................. 152 8.1.1 Unsettled problems: the issue of lineage ............................................................ 154 8.2 Is stability of measure possible: cardinal or ordinal rankings? ................................... 159 8.3 The emergence of economics as a science .................................................................. 162 9 Which ancestor? Taking stock of possibilities ........................................................................... 167 9.1.1 Competing ideas on value: Marx, Engels and Schmoller ..................................... 168 9.1.2 Struggles for definition: praxeology .................................................................... 170 9.1.3 Struggles for definition: evolutionary institutions .............................................. 173 9.2 Interminglings: economics migrates to education ...................................................... 176 9.3 A ‘secure stock of knowledge’? ................................................................................... 183 9.3.1 Seeking continuities: the pedigree of science ..................................................... 187 9.3.2 What counts as method? .................................................................................... 188 9.3.3 What counts as measure? ................................................................................... 190 9.4 A supra-agency interest: shall the poor inherit the earth? ......................................... 197 10 SPECE: Ngā huarahi arataki (2002) — an alchemy of wealth? ................................................... 202 10.1 ECE as public good ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. iv 10.2 Education as private, exchange, good ......................................................................... 207 11 Concluding thoughts................................................................................................................. 226 11.1 HCT as devolved responsibility .................................................................................... 233 11.2 Policy implications when HCT becomes the ‘taken-for-granted’ assumption of ECE . 234 11.2.1 The implications of HCT as a globalised discourse .............................................. 236 11.3 Questioning our ‘truths’: why is ECE important? ........................................................ 238 v Figures and tables Figures Figure 1: OECD quadrant demonstrating equity distribution across ranked member countries p.59 Figure 2: The usual depiction of children as numbers is reversed in this MoE PowerPoint slide- Fifty 3 and 4 year olds, slide 4. p.60 Figure 3: Fixed, rather