Preschool anxieties : Constructions of risk and gender in preschool teachers’ talk on physical interaction with children

Previous research shows that inexperienced preschool teachers experience anxiety in physical interaction with children. Against this backdrop, this article investigates how student-teachers and newly graduated preschool teachers talk about the risk of being accused of inappropriately touching children. This article is based on interviews with 20 women and men who recently started working in preschools, or who are soon to graduate as preschool teachers. Building on the notion of relational touch, the article shows that concerns over touch involve much more than the physical act itself. Relations among teachers, parents, children, management and policies are actualised in the informants’ narratives, narratives that are also tied to notions of gender and gender equality. The article shows that anxiety over touch is not gender-specific. The concept of relational touch is suggested as a tool to gain a nuanced understanding of the worries that especially newly educated preschool teachers can experience in relation to touch