Making little neo-liberals: The production of ideal child/learner subjectivities in primary school through choice, self-improvement and ‘growth mindsets’

This article aims to look at the intersection of policy and lived experience at the level of the individual child by dissecting how primary education policy in England demands and expects a particular learner subjectivity. The focus is on children in the first years of primary school, and how statutory assessments provide a model of the ‘ideal learner’ who is self-regulating and able to make choices which are self-improving. The article uses data collected through qualitative research projects conducted in the late 2000s and in 2017, involving interviews with teachers and school leaders and observation in classrooms, to consider how this model of the neo-liberal learner has evolved. Drawing on theoretical insights on the ‘neo-liberal subject’ and post-structural insights into subjectivity and acceptable/impossible learner identities, it is argued that despite some shifts towards valuing high attainment in ‘measurable’ subjects within a data-obsessed school system, there remains a broad conception of the ‘good learner’ in the early years, which includes attitudes to learning and self-regulation. This wider view is encouraged by the discourse of ‘growth mindset’ and the recent focus on character education, and has social justice implications.