Historicizing the Ahistorical Child of the Portuguese Primary Arts Education Curriculum. The Arts in School as the Governing of the Child’s Soul
Abstract The contribution addresses the writing of the history of education as a history of the present. The history of the present is seen as a style of reason conceived, both, as a methodological and theoretical gesture. It seeks, through a questioning of blind zones in the present, to trace its origins. It is not simply a question of returning to the past in search of truth. On the contrary, what Michel Foucault’s work allows us is to perceive the contingencies, arbitrariness, fragilities and, so often, violence enclosed in a set of presuppositions, ways of saying, seeing and thinking that we do act in the educational field. In a more concrete way, I will focus on the basic arts education curriculum in Portugal, to show how these are constructed not from a relationship with the arts, but through successive historical layers in which representations of the child, of the methods and processes of learning feed on the psychopedagogical languages with the aim of governing who the child should be and also who should not be that child. Thomas Popkewitz refers to these curricular alchemies as the translation process that transforms a given knowledge into a curricular subject, according to grids of rationality coming from psychology. Arts education is not about the arts but is a translation of psychological principles of the child into schooling. With this alchemical process there also come the rules of how children are supposed to learn, which stages of development they are supposed to go through, how knowledge should be divided and provided, and how the arts mirror the child’s inner life. The production of psychopedagogical knowledge about the child would produce images about what the child is and about what it should become.The government of childhood finds its genealogical lines in the process of governing the social body, in which to the power of governing would always correspond a meticulous gesture of knowledge production about those to be governed. Thus, a look at the curricula from this theoretical approach allows us to analyze not only the structure of the school, but also the grammars that put it into operation, and to problematize the ahistorical child of the arts education curriculum as a larger project that has in the government of the child (and simultaneously the teacher, parents, families, society) their purpose. Today, languages acquire different nuances, the categories multiply, but the rationality presented in the arts education curricula remains the same.
- Referencias
- Cómo citar
- Del mismo autor
- Métricas
Ariès, P.: Centuries of Childhood. A social History of Family Life, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
Baumeister, R.: «How the Self Became a Problem: A Psychological Review of Historical Research», Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1) (1987), pp. 163-176.
Clifford, J.: The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth-Century, Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press, 1988.
Educação, M. da: 1o Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Organização Curricular e Programas. Expressão e Educação: Físico-Motora, Musical, Dramática e Plástica, n. d.
Ferreira, A. A. d. C.: A Arte de Educar e a Psicologia Experimental, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1919.
Foucault, M.: The Archeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, New York, Pantheon Books, 1972.
Foucault, M.: «Dialogue on Power. Michel Foucault and a group of students Los Angeles», en Wade. S. (ed.): Chez Foucault, Los Angeles, Circabook, 1978 [1976], pp. 4-22.
Foucault, M.: «Nietzsche, Genealogy, History», en Bouchard, D. F. (ed.): Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Selected Essays and Interviews by Michel Foucault, New York, Cornell University Press, 1980 [1971], pp. 139-164.
Foucault, M.: «The Subject and Power», en Dreyfus, H. L. y Rabinow, P. (eds.): Michel Foucault. Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, 1982, pp. 208-226.
Foucault, M.: «Technologies of the Self», en Martin, L. H.; Gutman, H. y Hutton, P. H. (eds.): Technologies Of The Self. A Seminar With Michel Foucault, Massachusetts, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, pp. 16-49.
Foucault, M.: «Governmentality», en Burchell, G.; Gordon, C. y Miller, P. (eds.): The Foucault Effect. Studies In Governmentality With Two Lectures By And An Interview With Michel Foucault, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 87-104.
Gaztambide-Fernández, R.: «Why the arts don’t do anything: toward a new vision for cultural production in education», Harvard Educational Review, 83(1) (2013), pp. 211-236.Lowenfeld, V.: Your Child and His Art. A Guide for Parents, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1954.
Martins, C. S.: «The Arts in Education as Police Technologies. Governing the Child’s Soul», European Education, 45(3) (2014), pp. 67-84.
Martins, C. S.: «From Scribbles to Details: The Invention of Stages of Development in Drawing and the Government of the Child», en Popkewitz, T. S.; Díaz, J. y Kirchgasler, C. (eds.): A Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge. Studies of Exclusions and Difference, New York and London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 105-118.
Martins, C. S.: «The Alchemies of the Arts in Education. Problematizing Some of the Ingredients of the Recipe», en Jo?rissen, B.; Klepacki, L.; Klepacki, T.; Flasche, V.; Engel, J. y Unterberg, L. (eds.): Spectra of Transformation, Munster and New York, Waxmann, 2018, pp. 41-57.
Martins, C. S.: «Arts Education in Portugal in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Drawing and the Governing of the Student», en Baldacchino, J.; Freedman, K.; Hall, E. y Meager, Nigel (eds.): The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
Martins, C. S.: «Post-World War Two Psychology, Education and the Creative Child: Fabricating Differences», en Popkewitz, T. S.; Pettersson, D. y Hsiao, K.-J. (eds.): The International Emergence of Educational Sciences in the Post-World War Two Years Quantification, Visualization, and Making Kinds of People, New York, Routledge, 2020, pp. 91-108.
Martins, C. S. y Popkewitz, T. S.: «The ‘Eventualizing’ of Arts Education», Sisyphus - Journal of Education, 3(1) (2015), pp. 7-17.
Ó, J. R. do; Martins, C. S. y Paz, A. L.: «Genealogy as history: From Pupil to Artist as the Dynamics of Genius, Status, and Inventiveness in Art Education in Portugal», en Popkewitz, T. S. (ed.): Rethinking the History of Education. Transnational Perspectives on Its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 157-178.
Popkewitz, T. S.: «Alchemies and Governing: Or, questions about the questions we ask», Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39 (2007), pp. 64-83.
Popkewitz, T. S.: Cosmopolitanism and the Age of School Reform. Science, Education, and Making Society by Making the Child, New York and London: Routledge, 2008.
Popkewitz, T. S.: «Styles of Reason: Historicism, Historicizing, and the History of Education», en Popkewitz, T. S. (ed.): Rethinking the History of Education. Transnational Perspectives on Its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 1-26.
Turmel, A.: A Historical Sociology of Childhood. Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
(Traducción de Elena Patricia Hernández Rivero, Universidad de Salamanca)
Baumeister, R.: «How the Self Became a Problem: A Psychological Review of Historical Research», Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1) (1987), pp. 163-176.
Clifford, J.: The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth-Century, Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press, 1988.
Educação, M. da: 1o Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Organização Curricular e Programas. Expressão e Educação: Físico-Motora, Musical, Dramática e Plástica, n. d.
Ferreira, A. A. d. C.: A Arte de Educar e a Psicologia Experimental, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1919.
Foucault, M.: The Archeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, New York, Pantheon Books, 1972.
Foucault, M.: «Dialogue on Power. Michel Foucault and a group of students Los Angeles», en Wade. S. (ed.): Chez Foucault, Los Angeles, Circabook, 1978 [1976], pp. 4-22.
Foucault, M.: «Nietzsche, Genealogy, History», en Bouchard, D. F. (ed.): Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Selected Essays and Interviews by Michel Foucault, New York, Cornell University Press, 1980 [1971], pp. 139-164.
Foucault, M.: «The Subject and Power», en Dreyfus, H. L. y Rabinow, P. (eds.): Michel Foucault. Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, 1982, pp. 208-226.
Foucault, M.: «Technologies of the Self», en Martin, L. H.; Gutman, H. y Hutton, P. H. (eds.): Technologies Of The Self. A Seminar With Michel Foucault, Massachusetts, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, pp. 16-49.
Foucault, M.: «Governmentality», en Burchell, G.; Gordon, C. y Miller, P. (eds.): The Foucault Effect. Studies In Governmentality With Two Lectures By And An Interview With Michel Foucault, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 87-104.
Gaztambide-Fernández, R.: «Why the arts don’t do anything: toward a new vision for cultural production in education», Harvard Educational Review, 83(1) (2013), pp. 211-236.Lowenfeld, V.: Your Child and His Art. A Guide for Parents, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1954.
Martins, C. S.: «The Arts in Education as Police Technologies. Governing the Child’s Soul», European Education, 45(3) (2014), pp. 67-84.
Martins, C. S.: «From Scribbles to Details: The Invention of Stages of Development in Drawing and the Government of the Child», en Popkewitz, T. S.; Díaz, J. y Kirchgasler, C. (eds.): A Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge. Studies of Exclusions and Difference, New York and London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 105-118.
Martins, C. S.: «The Alchemies of the Arts in Education. Problematizing Some of the Ingredients of the Recipe», en Jo?rissen, B.; Klepacki, L.; Klepacki, T.; Flasche, V.; Engel, J. y Unterberg, L. (eds.): Spectra of Transformation, Munster and New York, Waxmann, 2018, pp. 41-57.
Martins, C. S.: «Arts Education in Portugal in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Drawing and the Governing of the Student», en Baldacchino, J.; Freedman, K.; Hall, E. y Meager, Nigel (eds.): The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
Martins, C. S.: «Post-World War Two Psychology, Education and the Creative Child: Fabricating Differences», en Popkewitz, T. S.; Pettersson, D. y Hsiao, K.-J. (eds.): The International Emergence of Educational Sciences in the Post-World War Two Years Quantification, Visualization, and Making Kinds of People, New York, Routledge, 2020, pp. 91-108.
Martins, C. S. y Popkewitz, T. S.: «The ‘Eventualizing’ of Arts Education», Sisyphus - Journal of Education, 3(1) (2015), pp. 7-17.
Ó, J. R. do; Martins, C. S. y Paz, A. L.: «Genealogy as history: From Pupil to Artist as the Dynamics of Genius, Status, and Inventiveness in Art Education in Portugal», en Popkewitz, T. S. (ed.): Rethinking the History of Education. Transnational Perspectives on Its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 157-178.
Popkewitz, T. S.: «Alchemies and Governing: Or, questions about the questions we ask», Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39 (2007), pp. 64-83.
Popkewitz, T. S.: Cosmopolitanism and the Age of School Reform. Science, Education, and Making Society by Making the Child, New York and London: Routledge, 2008.
Popkewitz, T. S.: «Styles of Reason: Historicism, Historicizing, and the History of Education», en Popkewitz, T. S. (ed.): Rethinking the History of Education. Transnational Perspectives on Its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 1-26.
Turmel, A.: A Historical Sociology of Childhood. Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
(Traducción de Elena Patricia Hernández Rivero, Universidad de Salamanca)
Martins, C. S. (2022). Historicizing the Ahistorical Child of the Portuguese Primary Arts Education Curriculum. The Arts in School as the Governing of the Child’s Soul. Historia De La Educación, 40(1), 221–241. https://doi.org/10.14201/hedu202140221241
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
+
−