“Becoming democratic?” Mapping effects and possibilities of the Australian early years learning framework

This paper reports on our ongoing mapping of effects of Australia’s first national early childhood curriculum framework, and how it works to expand and constrain possibilities for democratic practices in early childhood settings. Influenced by utopian notions of curriculum as a means of social transformation, and the Deleuzeguattarian concept of micropolitics as the study of lines, the paper draws on four data sources: key policy documents concerning the Framework; media coverage of, and responses to, that coverage; published scholarly analysis; and feedback from practitioners. The paper focuses on perspectives and visions concerning children’s relations with others, and the potentially transgressive possibilities of the explicit attention to theory within the Framework, including its recognition of the importance of theoretical diversity.