Are We There Yet? Gender Equity Journeys in Early Childhood Practice

Abstract

The importance of gender in the early childhood field has long been researched and written about by early childhood scholars (e.g., MacNaughton 1997, 2000; Blaise 2005). In 2015, we conducted a small-scale pilot research project with early childhood scholars and educators entitled Gender Identity in Early Childhood the findings of which will be discussed in this chapter. We asked how these two groups drew on feminist theories to support their work, how they understood gender-identity and gendering and how gender equity was part of their pedagogy in early childhood classrooms. This chapter will focus on the personal and lived experiences of 18 early childhood educators as they talked about their daily teaching focusing in particular on the place of feminism(s) in their work, how they think about gender-identity in their classrooms and how their pedagogical practices responded to issues of gendering.