ABSTRACT:
This paper presents results of a research that, based on Michel Foucault's studies, discusses the ways in which children are signified as human capital in documents produced by economic analysts, which serve as reference to developing countries for the proposition of Early Childhood Education policies. In that regard, the following documents produced by the World Bank are taken as investigative material: 1) Como investir na primeira infância: um guia para a discussão de políticas e a preparação de projetos de desenvolvimento da primeira infância; 2) Educação Infantil: Programas para a Geração Mais Importante do Brasil. In the analysis, governmentality is considered as a conceptual tool. It is then possible to infer that the central argument present in the documents is that early educational interventions qualify poor children's human capital and elevate future worker's productivity, thus constituting the citizen of the future.
Keywords:
Early Childhood Education; Economy; Governmentality; Human capital; Risk