The Early Years - Formal education too soon?

There has been a recent shift in Government policy in the Early Years. A growing discourse of a pedagogy of formal education has emerged as the view that learning key skills early might support narrowing the gap in educational attainment in later compulsory school. I was keen to unpack these discourses as my role is supporting the training of the Early Years Teacher. I selected a Foucauldian discourse analysis as the method for this research, as I wanted to understand how discursive formations can become a site of power and what impact this has on the wider Early Years sector.