‘Value’ing Children Differently? Migrant Children in Education

Abstract

This paper considers dilemmas around ‘value’ and the ‘valuing’ of children and childhood(s) in schools. I argue that in neo‐liberal contexts, processes of children's identity making become aligned with the idea of the corporate citizen – value and worth derived from the capacity to produce, excel, self‐regulate as well as consume in an ever expanding marketplace. Taking the positioning of migrant children as an exemplar, the paper explores the tensions in pedagogic practices between the valuing of migrant children and their ‘added value’ that is communicated through spheres of re/action in schools. The paper argues for education that is radical and strategic; careful and nurturing. In its absence, being valued differently involves reproducing negative patterns in a circular dialectical loop that naturalises under achievement of migrant children and other children at risk, to deficiencies in culture and identity.