Elever i kommunala skolplaner : En diskursanalys av hur elever konstitueras som subjekt

The aim of this essay is to analyze how students are constituted as subjects in local curricula. The theoretical perspective is grounded in Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality and power/knowledge and his critique of a sovereign subject. From this theoretical perspective I use Foucault’s concept of formation of objects and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s idea of subject positioning as tools for a discourse analysis. The analyzed documents are local curricula from fourteen Swedish municipalities. The documents are divided in to two equally sized groups based on the political governing in the municipality. The analysis presents five themes by which statements that constitute students as subjects can be categorized. These five themes are; lifelong learning, desire, essential traits, students responsibility and life and health. The differences between local curricula from political right wing and political left wing governed municipalities are rather small, but there can be seen differences in the technologies of liberal governing. The subject that is constituted in local curricula is primarily a self-governing subject who governs it self in relation to a expertise knowledge