De-territorializing the child: Towards a theory of affect in educational philosophy and research.

摘要

This dissertation explores the paradox between the normalizing and equalizing purpose of public education, stated in the rhetoric of policy and politics, and the social gaps it actually produces and perpetuates. The purpose of the study is to deterritorialize the ideal rational child of formal education and policy texts by juxtaposing it with the affective child found at the margin, outside of the rational regime of perception that permeates policy, and political discourse. I discuss what I believe are instances of children's deterritorialized/ing experiences often missed, not only by formal education, but also by policy writers across the board, and children's rights organizations. These instances are often found in the life conditions of disadvantaged communities, and the mechanisms people create in order to alleviate, or cope within less than ideal conditions, such as poverty, or warfare. I argue that an approach to the child as affective, will impact current beliefs about human individuals, increasing possibilities of being, and political action and relationships for individuals, as well as communities. In order to remain consistent with the Deleuzian frame that permeates the overall approach taken to the problem in the dissertation, rhizomatics was used as a methodological frame, and rhizo and schizoanalysis were used as methods for collecting and analyzing the rhizomatic/transgressive data. As an expression of ways in which childhood can be deterritorialized, the dissertation includes an attempt at schizoanalysis of my own experience as a child, both through memory and memories, as well as in the becoming- child which inevitably emerges within the process of writing about childhood.