Instructing the neoliberal student on the conduct of school: A case study of a schoolwide positive behavior system in kindergarten

Abstract

Schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports continue to be employed in elementary school settings that children attend across the globe. Such neoliberal systems of conduct teach children how to portray themselves as students so that they are ready to succeed in school and the larger society. For the most part, these systems are framed as successful behavior interventions. As a result, how such programs impact school personnel and students’ own conceptions of what it means to be a student is rarely troubled. Thus, through examining a case study of schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports in a kindergarten classroom in the United States, we investigated this issue. Specifically, we employed Foucault’s conceptions of neoliberalism and biopolitics to examine how a sample of school personnel and kindergarteners made sense of their schoolwide positive behavior system. Doing so provided us with the opportunity to rethink and challenge these neoliberal systems of control.