A study on the relationship between gender stereotypes of early childhood teachers and androgyny education

Abstract

Studies have shown that gender stereotypes have already appeared in children two years of age. As the central place for children's socialization, kindergarten teachers' gender stereotypes will substantially impact children's future studies and work. As one of China's most economically developed regions, the Yangtze River Delta region has richer educational resources than other regions. Some new educational concepts will be implemented earlier in the Yangtze River Delta region. As a relatively cutting-edge research field in preschool education, androgyny education has been implemented and developed to a certain extent in the Yangtze River Delta region. Therefore, this study took the Yangtze River Delta region as an example to find out the relationship between the gender stereotypes of early childhood teachers and androgyny education. A total of 67 teachers participated in this study. An adapted questionnaire was used to explore the relationship between teachers’ gender stereotypes and androgyny education. This study used empirical data to demonstrate that gender stereotypes of early childhood teachers in the Yangtze River Delta region were negatively related to androgyny education. Thus, when gender stereotypes of early childhood teachers were strong, they were less likely to implement androgyny education. In other words, teachers can mitigate their stereotypes by implementing androgyny education.