Perceptions of gender in early years

Abstract

This article presents an exploration of a group of Early Years Practitioners' (EYPs) perceptions of gender that may provide some insight into the growing divide between boys' and girls' educational performance (Burusic et al., 2012). I argue that the current media and educational interest in the gendered brain (Sax, 2005) and the influences that surround the child (Eckert and McConnell, 2013), can result in children acquiring social expectations and attitudes to learning that are different for both sexes. The frequent dimorphic treatment of boys and girls is often based on assumed biological differences (Baron-Cohen et al, 2004) that suggest that the sexes learn differently. This can result in the approaches to the care and education of children being established on their sex categories rather than their individual needs. My focus here is to explore practitioners' expectations and understanding of children's behaviour and learning in the nursery environment. The study is premised on the belief that practitioners' perceptions of gender could, as argued by Eliot (2009), result in self-fulfilling prophecies being (re)produced and (re)created. The deployment of stereotypical assumptions and practices could, I suggest, limit children's opportunities. The data used here is drawn from my doctoral study of the nature of gender as was understood by eight EYPs who took part in five discussion group sessions. An interpretative paradigm was adopted, where the EYPs' discussed their experiences and understanding of gender from their practice. Following Holloway and Wheeler (2013), the study explored experiences and perceptions in order to illuminate meaning and understanding. The findings indicated that there is a belief amongst the group of practitioners with whom I worked that gender is either innate or learned and that EYPs play no role in its development. The tentative conclusions suggest that changes to the education and training of EYPs are required in order to raise awareness of gender issues in nurseries. I suggest that there is a need to place gender back on the education and training agenda for EYP in order to support changes to practice that could, in turn, provide children with more equitable teaching and learning experiences.

An experimental study of teachers’ evaluations regarding peer exclusion in the classroom

“…Teacher biases against males have been demonstrated regarding teacher support provided to targets of bullying, including bullying by peer exclusion. In general, teachers consider boys more resilient and tough (Wingrave, 2018) and provide them with less support than they do for girls (Hughes, Cavell, & Willson, 2001). Teachers perceive that being a target of bullying is a more normative experience among boys than girls (Hektner & Swenson, 2012;Kochenderfer-Ladd & Pelletier, 2008).…”

Exploring the views of successful applicants for medical school about gender medicine using a gender-sensitive video assignment

“…The quotations used in this study have been translated from Dutch to English by a bilingual speaker. In the results section, it is indicated whether the patterns had been brought up by a few (1-10), some (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), many (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), most (40-49), or all (50) applicants. In this study, we applied the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) [26].…”

“…Students enter a learning environment with conceptions about how the world works, mostly without being aware of their own ideas [23]. Values and norms in society shape students' preconceptions about gender [24]. Although, gender may have been discussed in their earlier learning environments, as far as we know students have generally not learned to reflect on their implicit ideas.…”

Perceptions of gender roles: A case study

“…Other research grounded in socialisation such as MacNaughton (2000), explain how the idea of gender is a social construction and its developmental process begins at birth and then expands and develops with the child (Chapman, 2016). Whyte (1998) believes that gender role knowledge is actively developed within young children through monitoring of their social environment, in this way also echoing that of Bandura's (1977) social learning theory which emphasises the importance of learning through observation and mirrored behaviour.…”