This paper is concerned with the recent conceptual shift from 'pupil' to 'learner' as the preferred description of children and young people within formal education contexts (Reeves, 2013), and with critically assessing some of the consequences of this discursive change from a children's rights perspective.  We draw upon an analysis of education policy documents from Scotland, UK, as a means of investigating this, before opening out the discussion to a broader European context.

There is now a well established critique of the relational and power imbalances associated with the pupil-teacher dynamic (e.g. Lee, 2001) which is linked to a conceptual analysis of young peoples’ positioning within school contexts (Hunter, 1994, 1996). In recent policy literature, however, there has been a noticeable departure from use of the concept of 'pupil' to that of 'learner' (Biesta, 2006).  This is linked to a broader policy agenda that is concerned with the re-professionalisation of teachers that includes a discursive repositioning of teacher – child relations. The paper analyses this conceptual shift with particular reference to policies associated with the new 'Curriculum for Excellence' in Scotland (Education Scotland, 2013).

To what extent does the transition from pupil to learner afford greater opportunities for children and young peoples’ powers of expression? In response to this we trace a genealogy of the term 'learner' so as to identify its theoretical and conceptual provenance.  We argue that it is possible to identify two distinct traditions that inform the learner concept.  The first is from adult education and has potentially positive and empowering connotations; the second, derives from performance management literature and is directly concerned with the governance of individuals.  As such this assumes, as Simons and Masschelein (2006: 295) have put it, that 'a successful life... [is] an optimally capitalised life within an environment for which particular competences are required'. To this extent, the learner becomes a token for an entrepreneurial self, and pedagogy becomes synonymous with governance (Reeves, 2013).

Having identified these two traditions we then take the policy situation in Scotland as a case study and identify tensions in the discourse used in A Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive 2004) as it is translated into guidance for the implementation of a new curriculum in schools (2004-2010). We critically evaluate how 'becoming learner' is likely to impact upon the positioning of children and young people in schools.

The final part of our paper considers the implications of the learner concept for children's expression and ways in which some of the tensions between the two concepts of learner might be critically worked.  In particular, we raise the question as to how children and young people might be encouraged to critically engage with such a discourse with the possibility of 'living the present otherwise' (Foucault, 1979: 790). For teachers, on the other hand, critical questions concern the limits of knowing and ways of working beyond the learner discourse - to which they are also subject.

Biesta, G. J. J. 2006 Beyond Learning: Democratic Education for a Human Future, Boulder and London: Paradigm Publishers. Education Scotland, 2013 What is Curriculum for Excellence? Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/index.asp Accessed 31/1/2013. Foucault, M. (1979) Vivre autrement le temps, in D. Defert, F. Ewald & J. Lagrange, (Eds) Dits et écrits III 1976-1979. Paris Gallimard. Hunter, I. 1994. Rethinking the school: Subjectivity, bureaucracy, criticism. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Hunter, I. 1996. Assembling the school. In Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neoliberalism and rationalities of government, ed. A. Barry, T. Osborne, and N. Rose,143–66. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Lee, N. 2001 Childhood and Society: Growing up in an age of uncertainty, Maidenhead: Open University Press. Reeves, J. (2013 forthcoming) The Successful Learner: a Progressive or an Oppressive Concept? In M.Priestley & G.J.J.Biesta, (eds.) Reinventing the Curriculum: New Trends in Curriculum Policy and Practice, London: Bloomsbury. Simons, M. and Masschelein, J. 2006 'The Permanent Quality Tribunal in Education and the Limits of Education Policy', Policy Futures in Education, 4:3, pp. 292-305.