Constructing (Dis)ability through participation in early childhood markets: Preschool leaders’ enrolment decision-making

Authors

• Angela Passero Jones University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, U.S.A
• Roderick Jones University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, U.S.A

Keywords:

early childhood education, participation, rights, disability studies

Abstract

This article employs a critical case study (critical disability studies and critical policy analysis) to unpack how leaders in publicly funded private prekindergarten programs invoke conceptions of normality, and subsequently abnormality, during decision-making processes for student (dis)enrolment. More specifically, this research is concerned with ways private preschool leaders’ constructions of disability are implicated in decision-making affecting student enrolment and disenrollment, thereby facilitating constructions of children’s participation in this state-sanctioned early childhood education program. Three leadership teams at private preschools participated in responsive interviews, observations, and provided policy and curricular documents for analysis. Findings reveal how policy, market, and preschool leaders’ conceptions of (ab)normality influenced decision-making rationales and outcomes affecting (dis)enrolled students. Additionally, findings indicated leaders’ sense of identity impacted their interpretation of and reaction to program polices, local market pressures, and their construction of the “good consumer”—a parent/child dyad prepared for rigor with the exhibition of self-control. This research evinces complexities undergirding leaders’ decision-making when choosing to (dis)enrol students in publicly-funded voucher programs on privately-driven markets and how decisions function to (re)shape (dis)ability discourses in early childhood.