Gendered discourses and practices in role play activities: A case study of young children in the English Foundation Stage

Abstract

This paper draws on contemporary feminist post-structural theories to explore gendered discourses and practices in role play, in a small-scale case study of four children (age 4–5 years) in the English Foundation Stage. Non-participant observations of classroom-based role play activities were carried out over four months, with an original focus on progression and continuity in play (Cook, 2003). This was followed by a reflective re-viewing and analysis of the data by the two authors in order to provoke critical engagement with the gendered relationships and meanings in children’s play (Cook & Wood, 2006). The findings reveal the ways in which role play provides flexible contexts for children to explore and take up gender identities, and the social competences and power dynamics used to sustain or disrupt play.The findings confirm that children’s gendered identities are related to their emerging understandings of femininities and masculinities, and the complex ways in which these are represented and performed in their social and cultural worlds. Power and identity are established through dynamic social actions and interactions, humour, teasing, language and symbolic transformations, as children weave across real/not real boundaries. Re-viewing the data through feminist post-structural theories challenges established free play/free choice pedagogical approaches in relation to diversity and equity.