With chapters by a mixture of established and emerging international scholars in the field this is an interdisciplinary and authoritative study into the role of the psy-disciplines in the education system. Providing vivid illustrations from throughout the educational lifespan the book serves as an invaluable tool for reflection and critique of the implications of psy-based practice, and will be of particular interest to academics and scholars in the field of education policy and psychology.
Eva Bendix Petersen is Professor in the Department of People and Technology at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research explores the formation of subjectivity in educational contexts in relation to local and global policy discourses. Zsuzsa Millei is a research fellow at the Space and Political Agency Research Group at the University of Tampere, Finland and Senior Lecturer in early childhood and comparative and international education at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research examines how children are positioned and participate as political subjects and how children’s political subjectivities are formed.
“From silence to special education, from learners to leadership, from positive psychology to gendered, classed and racialized pathologisation, this engaging and creatively constructed book shows how psychological practices work to perpetuate and naturalise dominant hegemonic cultural assumptions. Not only is this a critical intervention, but it offers strategies for disrupting, interrupting and even queering or rewriting the role of the psy-complex in contemporary technologies and rationalities of rule. A must-read for all critical educators and practitioners.” (Erica Burman, Manchester University, UK)
“This volume brings a welcome updating of the application of the analysis of the Psy-complex to contemporary education. It deserves to be widely read across the educational field.” (Valerie Walkerdine, Cardiff University, UK)