Whiteness and Bodies Out of Place: A Critical Discussion of Early Childhood Educators’ Regulatory Language Practice in a Danish Context

Abstract

This article sheds light on contemporary interconnections between colonialism, whiteness and notions of Danishness. It offers a critical perspective on the possible (side) effects of emphasising Danish language proficiency in everyday pedagogical encounters with racial-ethnic minoritised children. Taking on the notion of coloniality of power (Quijano, 2000), the article considers Denmark’s colonial complicity and its present implications in today’s social structures and, in particular, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The article is based on critical ethnographic fieldwork (Madison, 2020) conducted in a Danish ECEC centre. By theorising whiteness (Ahmed, 2007) in relation to ideals of Danish language proficiency and by drawing on postcolonial theory (Fanon, 1952/2021, 1967), the article investigates how a regulatory language practice performed by ECEC educators can be understood as normative whiteness affecting a group of three 4–6-year-old racial-ethnic minoritised children with Turkish backgrounds. The analyses show how the children navigate the white space of the ECEC centre by adjusting their bodies accordingly as they are rendered bodies out of place. Conclusively, the article points to Danish ECEC institutions as critical sites in the reproduction of colonial power structures.

Keywords

• Danishness
• racial-ethnic minoritised children
• coloniality of power
• critical ethnography