Early preschool environments and gender: Effects of gender pedagogy in Sweden

Shutts, Kristin; Kenward, Ben; Falk, Helena; Ivegran, Anna; Fawcett, Christine

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.014

Cited by 48 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Preschools, however, are promising starting points for enacting change in parents and preschool teachers. Previous research found that preschool teachers project gender prejudices about play onto their students (Lynch 2015) and that children in preschools with a focus on gender-neutral education were found to show less gender stereotyping than children in typical preschools (Shutts et al 2017). Thus, training programs on gender-sensitive pedagogy for preschool teachers that include parental outreach may be an important step in promoting gender fairness in education.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

et al. 2018

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Parental toy selection and responses to toy play are important factors in children’s gender socialization. Reinforcing play with same-gender-typed toys guides children’s activities and limits their action repertoires in accordance with gender stereotypes. A survey of 324 Austrian parents of three- to six-year-old children was conducted to investigate parents’ judgments about the desirability of different types of toys for their children and how these judgements relate to parents’ gender-typing of toys, gender role attitudes, and demographics (age, education, gender). Results show that parents rated same-gender-typed and gender-neutral toys as more desirable for their children than cross-gender-typed toys. The traditionalism of parents’ gender role attitudes was not associated with their desirability judgments of same-gender-typed toys, but was negatively related to their desirability judgments of cross-gender-typed toys. This indicates that egalitarian parents permit a greater range of interests and behaviors in their children than traditional parents do. Younger parents, parents with lower educational levels, and fathers reported more traditional gender role attitudes than did older parents, parents with higher educational levels, and mothers. However, no differences based on age, educational level or gender were found in parents’ judgments of toy desirability. The present study demonstrates that parents’ judgments about the desirability of toys for their children do not accurately reflect their gender role attitudes. This finding highlights the importance of simultaneously investigating different aspects of parents’ gender-related attitudes in order to gain a better understanding of parental transmission of gender stereotypes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11199-017-0882-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

et al. 2018

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“…Focusing on several dimensions, Shutts et al. () examined how children in these gender‐neutral schools fared compared to children in “typical” schools. Results suggested that children in the gender‐neutral schools were more interested in playing with unfamiliar opposite‐gender children and scored lower on gender stereotyping than children in “typical” schools.…”

Section: Recommendations For Research Practice and Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As one of the frontrunners with regards to gender equality, Sweden recently implemented gender-neutral practices in some schools. In these schools, gender-neutral pronouns are used, traditional gender roles and family structures are counteracted through adapted songs and stories, and behaviors traditionally directed at a specific gender are avoided (e.g., commenting on girls' appearances; Shutts, Kenward, Falk, Ivegran, & Fawcett, 2017). Focusing on several dimensions, Shutts et al (2017) examined how children in these gender-neutral schools fared compared to children in "typical" schools.…”

Section: Reducing Sogip In Research Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these schools, gender-neutral pronouns are used, traditional gender roles and family structures are counteracted through adapted songs and stories, and behaviors traditionally directed at a specific gender are avoided (e.g., commenting on girls' appearances; Shutts, Kenward, Falk, Ivegran, & Fawcett, 2017). Focusing on several dimensions, Shutts et al (2017) examined how children in these gender-neutral schools fared compared to children in "typical" schools. Results suggested that children in the gender-neutral schools were more interested in playing with unfamiliar opposite-gender children and scored lower on gender stereotyping than children in "typical" schools.…”

Section: Reducing Sogip In Research Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Interventions to Reduce Blatant and Subtle Sexual Orientation‐ and Gender Identity Prejudice (SOGIP): Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Cramwinckel

Scheepers

Toorn

2018

Social Issues Policy Review

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“…Finally, it remains to be seen how language affects the development of gender stereotypes and gender roles in children. There is now first indirect evidence that children exposed to "gender-neutral" classrooms in which teachers, among others, refrain from using gendered language, are less likely to develop gender-typical beliefs and behaviors (Shutts, Kenward, Falk, Ivegran, & Fawcett, 2017). We suspect that investigating the developmental trajectories of language use and beliefs during childhood will offer interesting insights into the broader effects of gender marking.…”

Section: Social Playersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Between Groups, Communicating About Groups

Rakić¹,

Maass²

2018

Language, Communication, and Intergroup Relations

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This chapter provides a selective overview of some of the most relevant aspects of intergroup communication. We first introduce the topic by discussing the relationship between intergroup communication and social identity. In the second part, we then cover three language strategies (category labels, language abstraction, and metaphors) that different groups can adopt when communicating between and about groups. Category labels reveal social meaning well beyond mere classification, by triggering affective reactions and stereotyping, whereas language abstraction and metaphors play a central role in establishing and maintaining stereotypes and intergroup relationships. In the third part, we directly address specific social groups, including salient and relatively unambiguous social categories (i.e., gender and race) as well as more fluid categories (i.e., regional and social background as well as sexual orientation). The chapter provides a broad overview of linguistic strategies and of their specific use with selected social categories, together with suggestions for the development of future research and theorizing. Communicating Between Groups, Communicating About GroupsBuilding from the introductory chapter, this chapter will elaborate on social identity theory and its intellectual sister theories (e.g., self-categorization theory). Further, we will focus particularly on language strategies used in an intergroup context (i.e., labels, language abstractness, and metaphors) and intergroup communication related to specific social groups (i.e., gender, race, and more fluid categories such as socio-geographical background and sexual orientation).More specifically this chapter is structured in three parts that follow a brief overview of intergroup communication in relation to social identity, self-categorization, and communication accommodation theory. In the first part, we will discuss three language tools that play a prominent role in communicating within, across, and about social groups. These include group labels, which can create friendly or hostile intergroup relations and can induce stereotype threat in those targeted by the same label. In the second part, we will cover language abstraction and metaphors, both of which can play a very important role in intergroup communication, as they reflect, maintain, and create intergroup bias and aid stereotype dissemination. Whereas in the first part of the chapter we will be referring to groups in general (with some specific examples), in the second part we will address issues related to important social categories. We will address gender and race and, subsequently, more fluid categories such as social class, geographical/regional background, and sexual orientation. The section on gender will cover issues related to grammatical gender (e.g., actor vs. actress) and the consequences of using masculine forms to represent both females and males. The part on interracial communication will address the issue of race/ethnicity in terms of labels we use to address different groups ...

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Early preschool environments and gender: Effects of gender pedagogy in Sweden

Cited by 48 publications

References 53 publications

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

Interventions to Reduce Blatant and Subtle Sexual Orientation‐ and Gender Identity Prejudice (SOGIP): Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Communicating Between Groups, Communicating About Groups

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