Individual action planning: a case of self‐surveillance?

Abstract

The authors explore the Foucauldian concept of self‐surveillance in the context of the use of Individual Action Planning (IAP) as a central process of a 1‐year teacher training course. Drawing on work that examined whether IAP was experienced by student‐teachers as empowerment or control, the article postulates that Action Planning can be seen as a central technique of a system of self‐surveillance. The effect of IAPs in creating self‐surveillance is investigated empirically, utilizing an original and non‐Foucaldian pre–post questionnaire technique, in order to attract the widest possible audience to the idea of self‐surveillance as a key process of governance in advanced liberal societies. The findings support the idea that self‐surveillance is one of the outcomes of the IAP process, but also finds Foucauldian ‘resistances’ among the cohort investigated.

Notes

* School of Education, University of Leicester, 21 University Road, Leicester LE1 7RF, UK. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tony Lawson *

* School of Education, University of Leicester, 21 University Road, Leicester LE1 7RF, UK. Email: [email protected]