Equality work in preschool : A qualitative interview study on a few preschool teachers' perceptions of their gender equality work in preschool

Previous research has shown that traditional gender patterns and gender roles are being reproduced by adults and society. Gender patterns is something that is discovered in for example children’s play pattern while gender roles are attributed to the way a girl or a boy is considered to behave. This study investigates four preschool teachers’ perceptions of their own gender equality work, how they understand the terms “gender patterns” and “gender roles” and how the new Swedish preschool curriculum effects their work against inequality between boys and girls. Qualitative interview has been used as a method and then the preschool teachers’ answers have been compared and categorized. Six categories appear in the results: “Traditional gender patterns and genes roles”, “The influence of society and the home”, “Gender transparency”, “Conversation and reflection”, “Awareness” and “The curriculum reinforces the work in preschool”. The preschool teachers seem to think that gender patterns and gender roles are linked to a traditional way of seeing gender and that society and the homes are the sources to the reproduction of these traditional ways of categorizing boys and girls. To counteract traditional gender patterns and gender roles the preschools teachers believes in a gender transparency approach, conversation and reflection and awareness in choices such ass materials, environment and in how adults value boys and girls. The preschool teachers believe that de new Swedish curriculum supports their already ingoing gender equality work.Fastställt via akademichefsbeslut HIG-STYR 2019/7 den 2019-01-07 Daniel Petterson, fil dr, univ. lekt Pedagogik och Erika Björklund, fil dr, univ. lekt Pedagogik går in som examinatorer på PEG700 under veckorna 1 till och med 3, 2019 då Peter Gill, prof. Pedagogik, gått i pension från och med 2019-01-01.