Foucault News

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

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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Donald Gillies, Educational Leadership and Michel Foucault, Routledge, 2013 Publisher’s site Description Drawing from the ideas of Michel Foucault, this book offers a critical examination of today’s dominant discourse of educational leadership. Foucault’s understanding of critique is as a ‘permanent’ ethos in which humans explore the nature of their existence but at the same time …

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Eva Vakirtzi, Phil Bayliss, Towards a Foucauldian Methodology in the Study of Autism: Issues of Archaeology, Genealogy, and Subjectification (2013) Journal of Philosophy of Education Volume 47, Issue 3, pages 364–378. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12004 Abstract The remarkable increase in diagnoses of autism has paralleled an increase in scientific research and turned the syndrome into a kind of …

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De Marzio, D.M. The Pedagogy of Self-Fashioning: A Foucaultian Study of Montaigne’s “On Educating Children”, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Volume 31, Issue 4, July 2012, Pages 387-405 DOI: 10.1007%2Fs11217-011-9282-3 Abstract In this paper I interpret Montaigne’s essay, “On Educating Children”, as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses …

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Stephen J. Ball, Foucault, Power, and Education, London: Routledge, 2012 Series: Routledge Key Ideas in Education Description Foucault, Power, and Education invites internationally renowned scholar Stephen J. Ball to reflect on the importance and influence of Foucault on his work in educational policy. By focusing on some of the ways Foucault has been placed in …

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Ball, S.J., Olmedo, A. Care of the self, resistance and subjectivity under neoliberal governmentalities (2013) Critical Studies in Education, 54 (1), pp. 85-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2013.740678 Abstract Resistance is normally thought of as a collective exercise of public political activity. In this article, Ball and Olmedo approach the question of resistance in a different way, through Foucault’s …

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Social Theory and Education Research Understanding Foucault, Habermas,Bourdieu and Derrida. Edited by Mark Murphy, London: Routledge, April 2013 September 2025 update: Link above is to the second edition published in 2022. Description Although education researchers have drawn on the work of a wide diversity of theorists, a number of these have been of particular significance …

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Kannen, V. (2013). These are not ‘regular places’: women and gender studies classrooms as heterotopias. Gender, Place & 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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