alisonlee125
A list of readings about challenging homophobia and gender bias…
A list of readings about challenging homophobia and gender bias in early childhood education. Choose ONE reading from this list and explain it can help you think about challenging homophobia and gender bias ?.
“I can be a girl if I want to”: Supporting or silencing children’s working theories during counter-heteronormative picturebook sessions in early childhood education
Abstract
Prevailing heteronormative discourses in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand present difficulties for upholding the right of gender diverse tamariki (children) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer-parented families to experience belonging in equitable, inclusive early childhood settings. The purposeful use of picturebooks that disrupt these discourses can go some way towards mitigating against exclusion. This article draws on the findings of a small-scale qualitative research project that explored early childhood teachers’ use of picturebooks that included gender diverse children and lesbian- and gay-parented family content. In highlighting teacher support for or silencing of children’s working theories about possibilities for gender change and two mother or two father parents during the picture book sessions, the article makes a case for expanding the curriculum beyond the limits of heteronormativity. Some practice recommendations for facilitating picturebook sessions are offered to this end. Importantly, teacher preparedness to manage discomfort arising through discussion of topics perceived to be dangerous or risky during such sessions is critical.
Reference to use
Areljung, S., & Kelly-Ware, J. (2017). Navigating the risky territory of children’s working theories. Early Years, 37(4), 370-385. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2016.1191441
Baldacchino, C. (2014). Morris Micklewhite and the tangerine dress (I. Malenfant, Illus.). Groundwood Books.
Bentley, D. F., & Souto-Manning, M. (2016). Toward inclusive understandings of marriage in an early childhood classroom: Negotiating (un)readiness, community, and vulnerability through a critical reading of King and King. Early Years, 36(2), 195-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2015.1104899
Blaise, M., & Taylor, A. (2012). Using queer theory to rethink gender equity in early childhood education. Young Children, 67(1), 88-98.
Britzman, D. P. (1998). Lost subjects, contested objects: Toward a psychoanalytic inquiry of learning. State University of New York Press.
Bryan, N. (2019). ‘Playing with or like the girls’: Advancing the performance of ‘multiple masculinities in black boys’ childhood play’ in US early childhood classrooms. Gender and Education, 31(3), 309-326. https://doi.org/0.1080/09540253.2018.1447091
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Chapman, R. (2021). Moving beyond ‘gender-neutral’: Creating gender expansive environments in
early childhood education. Gender and Education, 34(1), 1-16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1902485
Cherrington, S., Cooper, K., & Shuker, M. J. (2020). Beyond invisibility: Early childhood teachers’ inclusion of rainbow families. Early Childhood Education Journal, 49, 1099-1111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01121-w
Cooper, K. (2017). Challenging dominance in the education sector: Why is it important and how can I do it? Waikato Journal of Education, 22(3), 87-97. https://doi.org/10.15663/wje.v22i3.371
Gray, D. E. (2018). Doing research in the real world (4th ed.). Sage.
Gunn, A. C. (2015). The potential of queer theorising in early childhood education. Disrupting
heteronormativity and practising for inclusion. In A. C. Gunn & L. A. Smith (Eds.), Sexual
cultures in Aotearoa/New Zealand education (pp. 21-34). Otago University Press.
