“Power/knowledge” and the educational experiences and expectations of Australian show people

A Foucauldian perspective reveals how “knowledge” can be complicit with “power” in privileging some individuals and groups while marginalizing others. This crucial point should alert educational researchers to the ethical and political implications of recording itinerant peopleʹs reflections on their educational experiences and their expectations of alternative forms of schooling. Thus, the Australian show peopleʹs general dissatisfaction with the learning opportunities available in the past has fuelled their determined lobbying for a separate school for show children; here the demand for a specific form of knowledge provision articulates with the show peopleʹs engagement with state and institutional power. The chapter illustrates this argument by drawing on the senior authorʹs semi-structured interviews with show children, parents, home tutors, and teachers in five sites between 1992 and 1996.