'Boy friendly pedagogies': producing girls and boys in early childhood contexts

My agenda for the keynote is three-fold. I want to think with you about some of the ways that gender does matter, for children, for teaching, for you - focussing on the ‘idea’ of the ‘problem’ of boy’s education, I want to first set the scene for understanding how notions like ‘boys need special treatment’ come to the fore, and I’ll speak to how I think it happened in NZ; then I want to explore how different understandings of gender help maintain or prove useful for resisting such notions; and finally, to show how teachers’ practices might close down or open up possibilities for children to express their gender in novel and unique ways. By the end of the keynote I hope to have you raising an eyebrow or two over the absolute necessity of this idea of ‘boy friendly pedagogies’ and reconnecting with your already vast resources to consider how to work with all children, boys included, in ways that will support their gender identities to flourish