Literacies of (Post)Socialist Childhood: Alternative Readings of Socialist Upbringings and Neoliberal Futures

Autor/inn/en	Mead, Michael A.; Silova, Iveta
Titel	Literacies of (Post)Socialist Childhood: Alternative Readings of Socialist Upbringings and Neoliberal Futures
Quelle	In: Globalisation, Societies and Education, 11 (2013) 2, S.194-222 (29 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1476-7724
DOI	10.1080/14767724.2013.783314
Schlagwörter	Social Systems; Foreign Countries; Discourse Analysis; Educational Change; Literacy; Neoliberalism; Knowledge Economy; Textbooks; Social Change; Global Approach; Content Analysis; Values; Nationalism; Latvia; Ukraine; USSR + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Social system; Soziales System; Ausland; Diskursanalyse; Bildungsreform; Alphabetisierung; Schreib- und Lesefähigkeit; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Knowledge society; Economy; Wissensgesellschaft; Wirtschaft; Textbook; Text book; Schulbuch; Lehrbuch; Sozialer Wandel; Globales Denken; Inhaltsanalyse; Wertbegriff; Nationalismus; Lettland
Abstract	In the former Soviet Union, the upbringing of children in the spirit of Marxist-Leninist values was central to the project of societal transformation. More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is important to understand how the education of young children in this region has changed in response to a world rapidly globalising and increasingly driven by market economic policies. Just how much have post-socialist states, as others across the world, reoriented their educational projects to ensure the development of individuals maximally adapted for the information economy of late capitalism? This study probes this question through the critical discourse analysis of a genre of early literacy textbooks--"bukvari"--used widely throughout the Soviet and post-Soviet education system. Through comparison of literacy texts published in the late Soviet era with those used over the past two decades in independent Latvia and Ukraine, we explore how discourses representing children and their behaviors--what we call "literacies of childhood"--have evolved during post-socialist transformations. In contrast to the predominant assumption that values common to socialism should have given way to cosmopolitan, neoliberal principles, we find surprising flows and modifications between visions of the "Soviet" and "post-Soviet" child. Most significantly perhaps, our analysis reveals that even the most recent textbooks reject assertions of a global and future-oriented citizen, instead idealising visions of a distinctly "national" Latvian or Ukrainian citizenry, growing up in a trapped-in-time, ethnically and linguistically homogenous homeland. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures, and 5 notes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10