policy caucus

RECE has a long tradition of critical engagement with education, and early childhood education more specifically, as a profoundly political practice. Our engagement manifests in a wide range of critical theories and pedagogies that underpin and inform the presentations and discussions at RECE conferences. It sits at the very roots of RECE as a scholarly movement to counter the politically driven project of imposing and implementing a narrow version of universalist Developmentally Appropriate Practice that regards diversity and ambiguity as problematic. Instead, such practices embrace predetermined outcomes, responding to uniform and standardised approaches to understanding (theorising) and evaluating early childhood education as a merely technical task.

In recent years, indigenous and ‘global south’ epistemologies, theories and methodologies have enriched (and challenged) RECE as an arena of western-centric resistance and dominant (white, male!) critical theory. While policy and the political are (and always have been) implied in our ongoing project of reconceptualisation, we have not yet developed a space, within RECE, that is specifically dedicated to policy as an area of critical interrogation and proactive engagement. The proposed RECE Policy Caucus aims at providing this space.

The caucus aspires to engage in critical analyses of international (global, regional) policies that affect the lives of young children, their communities, and their educators. Its members, through collective and individual scholarship, interrogate the actors of the international early childhood policy space (international organisations, supra-national bodies, corporations). In doing so, we aim to involve ourselves in processes of policymaking beyond analysis and critique, as well as in critical (re)theorisation of policy and politics.

The caucus will hold regular meetings at the annual RECE conference, beginning at the 28th annual conference in Vancouver, Canada. It will develop a programme of engagement and collaborative research, and will present its work at the annual conference and through other (virtual) channels. The caucus is open to all RECE members with an interest in its remit.

For expressions of interest, queries and suggestions please contact Mathias Urban.