Foucault and his acolytes: Discourse, power and ethics

This chapter introduces Foucault and explores the interest his work has generated for many researchers within education. It traces the development of Foucault’s ideas, beginning with his initial interest in structures and discourses, within his archaeologies of knowledge, medicine and madness, then charts Foucault’s shift of focus onto genealogy, studying institutions such as prisons, schools and sexuality. The chapter will also explore Foucault’s later, and somewhat neglected, writings on ethics, including transgression, biopower and biopolitics. Some reflections will be offered on the relationship between the three strands of Foucault’s work – archaeology, genealogy and ethics – and aspects of Foucault’s biography as well as on the extent to which some of his own professional and personal experiences enabled him to develop and refine his ideas. Some critical reflections on the experiences of bridging theory and method, and of bridging theory and practice, will be offered, the latter a bridging only insofar as his ideas are used to rethink the challenge of inclusive education. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of whether there is such a thing as a legacy of Foucault and, if so, how this might be constituted.