Becoming a 'Learner' in the Australian Primary School: An (Auto)ethnographic Exploration

This chapter offers an (auto)ethnographic exploration of the process of becoming a subject in the Australian primary school system. It is an (auto)ethnographic inquiry in the sense that the site is the author’s son’s start of school, but not from his vantage point. The exploration focusses on the prevalence and operation of ‘learning discourses’ and how the subject is continuously positioned as ‘learner’. The chapter illustrates the ways in which the learning discourses are psy-based, that is, rest on a mix of behavioural and cognitive psychological theories as well as the assumption of the bounded individual. The chapter concludes by briefly discussing how these psy- based learning discourses coalesce with neoliberal assumptions and interests.