Early childhood teachers' accounts of gender equity in their work with young children

Master of EducationFor my thesis, I have studied a small group of Victorian early childhood teachers' accounts of gender equity in their work with young children. Through reviewing the research literature generated on my topic, I have found that there are three potential discourses used by teachers to approach their gender equity work with young children. The three dominant discourses I found through the review of the literature that teachers position their approach to gender equity are socialisation, biological and feminist poststructuralist discourses of children's gender construction. My study used a feminist poststructuralist qualitative approach to data analysis. I generated text-based data through open-ended surveys and interviews with 16 Victorian early childhood teachers to gain text based data. Some of the data I generated was analysed using content analysis to identify the patterns and themes within the data and to numerically identify which category the participants situated themselves within. Feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis was used to examine and identify a range of gender discourses that teachers position their approach to gender equity within the early childhood classroom. The findings from my research showed many consistencies in how early childhood educators talk about how they understand their gender equity work with young children. The differences seen in their gender equity work with young children were the discourses they positioned their approach to gender equity within to produce their understandings of gender roles and behaviours. My analysis of the data I collected showed how the teachers in my study could change their subjective positioning within the discourses in which their approach to gender equity was located, in order to feel powerful and change the perceptions that children hold in relation to gender roles and behaviours. Through examining the data I collected, I found that there has been very little shift in the dominant discourses of children's gender construction used by teachers in studies about gender equity since the 1980s and 1990s. I also found that many early childhood teachers still heavily rely upon socialisation discourses of children's gender construction in their gender equity work with young children. In analysing the data I found early childhood teachers still reinforce gender stereotyping in some Victorian early childhood settings. My research study has provided valuable insight into the accounts of early childhood teachers on how they approach their gender equity work with young children. My research study complements the research conducted by Lee-Thomas, Sumsion and Roberts (2005). I concluded my thesis with recommendations and suggestions for further research with the purpose to develop future professional training and curriculum policy to change teachers' approaches to gender bias in the early childhood setting