This article aims to look at the intersection of policy and lived experience at the level of the individual child by dissecting how primary education policy in England demands and expects a particular learner subjectivity. The focus is on children in the first years of primary school, and how statutory assessments provide a model of the ‘ideal learner’ who is self-regulating and able to make choices which are self-improving. The article uses data collected through qualitative research projects conducted in the late 2000s and in 2017, involving interviews with teachers and school leaders and observation in classrooms, to consider how this model of the neo-liberal learner has evolved. Drawing on theoretical insights on the ‘neo-liberal subject’ and post-structural insights into subjectivity and acceptable/impossible learner identities, it is argued that despite some shifts towards valuing high attainment in ‘measurable’ subjects within a data-obsessed school system, there remains a broad conception of the ‘good learner’ in the early years, which includes attitudes to learning and self-regulation. This wider view is encouraged by the discourse of ‘growth mindset’ and the recent focus on character education, and has social justice implications.

中文翻译：

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减少新自由主义者：通过选择，自我完善和“成长思维方式”在小学阶段产生理想的儿童/学习者主体性

本文旨在通过剖析英格兰的初等教育政策如何要求和期望特定的学习者主观性，来研究单个孩子层面的政策与生活经验的交集。重点是小学一年级的孩子，以及法定评估如何为“理想学习者”提供模型，他们可以自我调节并做出自我完善的选择。本文使用通过2000年代末和2017年进行的定性研究项目收集的数据，包括与教师和学校领导的访谈以及课堂上的观察，来考虑这种新自由主义学习者模型是如何演变的。利用对“新自由主义主题”的理论见解以及对主体性和可接受/不可能的学习者身份的结构后见解，有人认为，尽管在重视数据迷恋的学校系统中对“可衡量的”科目取得较高成就的态度有所转变，但在早期，对“好学习者”的概念仍然很广泛，包括对学习和自我调节的态度。这种更广泛的观点受到“成长思维方式”的论述和最近对品格教育的关注的鼓舞，并且具有社会正义意义。