Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Katherine Nicoll, Andreas Fejes, Maria Olson, Magnus Dahlstedt, and Gert Biesta. (2013) Opening discourses of citizenship education: A theorization with Foucault. Journal of Education Policy, 28 (6): 828–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2013.823519 Abstract We argue two major difficulties in current discourses of citizenship education. The first is a relative masking of student discourses of citizenship by positioning students …

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Margaret Walshaw, Post-structuralism and ethical practical action: Issues of identity and power (2013) Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44 (1), pp. 100-118. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0100 Abstract In an era when familiar categories of identity are breaking down, an argument is made for using post-structuralist vocabulary to talk about ethical practical action in mathematics education. Using aspects …

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Ansgar Allen, The Examined Life. On the Formation of Souls and Schooling, American Educational Research Journal, April 2013 vol. 50 no. 2 216-250 https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831212466934 Abstract The spread of examination throughout educational institutions is often viewed as an overly constraining influence, one that distorts pedagogic relationships and prevents more genuine educational activities from taking place. This …

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Free 1 Day Conference Foucault and Education: retrospect and prospect 29 January 2014, ICOSS, University of Sheffield [Editor: Update 14 March 2026. Link above is to the archived page on the Wayback Machine.] Conveners: Ansgar Allen & Wilfred Carr; Keynotes: Erica Burman & Stephen Ball Hosted, sponsored and funded by the international journal Pedagogy, Culture …

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Victoria Kannen, These are not ‘regular places’: women and gender studies classrooms as heterotopias (2013) Gender, Place and Culture, 21(1), 52–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2012.759910 Abstract This article questions the transformative potential of women and gender studies classrooms through a discussion of student experiences of privilege and oppression in these spaces. Using in-depth interviews with 22 undergraduate students …

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Matthew Clarke and Barbara Hennig, Motivation as ethical self-formation (2013) Educational Philosophy and Theory, 45 (1), pp. 77-90.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2012.715386 Abstract Motivation is a concept more frequently found in venues concerned with educational psychology than in ones concerned with educational philosophy. Under the influence of psychology, and its typically dualistic way of making sense of the world, motivation in education has …

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Niesche, R. Foucault, counter-conduct and school leadership as a form of political subjectivity (2013) Journal of Educational Administration and History, 45 (2), pp. 144-158.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2013.768968 Abstract Globally, a range of new schooling accountabilities have created a complex and often contradictory context in which school leaders work. For principals of low socio-economic status (SES) and disadvantaged schools, they must balance the …

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Qvarsebo, J.U.D. Swedish progressive school politics and the disciplinary regime of the school, 1946-1962: A genealogical perspective(2013) Paedagogica Historica, 49 (2), pp. 217-235.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2012.725841 Abstract This article examines the vision of the Swedish comprehensive school reform between 1946-1962 as it pertains to the ever-troubling questions of discipline and order in school. Inspired primarily by the work of Michel Foucault and …

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Allen, A. (2012) Using Foucault in education research, British Educational Research Association on-line resource. Michel Foucault is frequently cited in educational research. Care should, nevertheless, be taken when reading work that makes use of Foucault as interpretations of Foucault’s ideas vary almost as widely as the uses to which they are put. This resource, designed …

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