Gender and pre-school in picture books : An analysis of how pre-school or pre-school class and educators are portrayed in six picture books

The aim of this essay is to analyze six picture books from a gender perspective. Research and investigations shows that children's literature has a big influence on how young children understand norms and values related to gender identity. It is written in the Swedish curriculum for the non-compulsory school system that the pre-school should counteract traditional gender roles. In this essay, six picture books with stories that take place in a pre-school or a pre-school class are being analyzed. Two of them, according to their market strategy, challenges established gender norms. I have investigated if there are any differences between how the educator as a character and the pre-school are portrayed where a girl contra a boy has the leading role. The focus of the essay is on the educator’s approach towards the main character as well as how the pre-school or pre-school class is being portrayed. I have also compared the two books that challenges established gender norms with the other four. Qualitative content analysis has been used as method. Both the text and illustrations are interpreted and analyzed in the essay. The main theory that is applied in the analysis is the gender theory, in which the term "gender" refers to social constructions, rather than biological phenomenons, of femininities and masculinities. In conclusion it can be stated that the girl characters have a more positive relationship to the educator and the pre-school than the boy characters. In the books which have boys as main characters the relationship with the educator is implicitly or explicitly negative or distanced. In all of the books, in which boys hold the leading role, the pre-school or pre-school class is portrayed as a quite gender-segregated environment. This is an image that is not as noticeable in the books which have girls as main characters. It can also be interpreted that the books that are introduced to the market as challenging of gender norms in some aspects confirm, rather than challenge, established gender norms