Slow violence in the micro-regimes of early childhood education

Abstract

This paper examines inequality among children, demonstrating its gradual emergence within the folds of daily routines in early childhood education (ECE). Employing Rob Nixon’s (2011) concept of slow violence, our focus is on the cumulative impact of practices involving exclusion. Synthesizing Nixon’s framework with Deleuze (1994) and Guattari’s (2000) work, we introduce the concept of micro-regimes in ECE. This approach allows us to comprehend how the intricate interplay of human and non-human elements, spanning various scales, contributes to exclusion and the unfolding of slow violence. We present an ethnographic case study detailing the unintended excluding practices that Azeeb, aged two, faces within a nursery room at a long day care centre in Australia. The results unveil a series of systematic exclusionary acts and illuminate the disjunction between normative pedagogical practices and the material realities of the nursery room, leading to an asynchronous rhythm between the paces of the toddler room and Azeeb. This misalignment gives rise to a series of cumulative exclusionary acts, epitomizing the concept of slow violence as it works at the site of a child.