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Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom

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Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom UNCOVERING GENDERED TEACHING PRACTICES IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM April Larremore Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2014 APPROVED: Kelley King, Major Professor Francis van Tassell, Committee Member Carol Hagen, Committee Member Nancy Nelson, Committee Member James Laney, Chair of the Department of Teacher Education and Administration Jerry Thomas, Dean of the College of Education Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Larremore, April. Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom. Doctor of Education (Early Childhood Studies), August 2014, 162 pp., references, 128 titles. For many early childhood teachers, interacting with children about issues concerning gender and sexuality is fraught with feelings of uneasiness and anxiety. For others, familiarity with research on these topics has resulted in rethinking their approaches to sex, gender, and sexuality in their early childhood classrooms. This inquiry examined the tensions associated with the researcher’s attempts to rethink gendered narratives and childhood sexuality in her own classroom. The study took place over the course of 4 months and involved a traditional public kindergarten classroom. Queer theory and feminist poststructuralism, along with a multi-voiced poststructural autoethnography were used to demonstrate the researcher’s shifting identities and the cultural context that shaped the researcher’s behaviors and perspective. Multivocal autoethnographic narratives were written to illustrate the researcher’s journey between trying on, being in, and becoming a feminist poststructural educator who uncovers and troubles gendered teaching practices in her own early childhood classroom. The following insights resulted from this study: young children actively and knowingly talk about gender and sexuality and do have a considerable amount of sexual knowledge; heterosexuality plays an integral part in children’s everyday experiences; and a lack of equity and inclusion associated with family diversity or queer identities exists in the early childhood classroom. Young children’s access to knowledge about gender, relationships, and sexuality has critical implications for their health and well-being, not only in their early years but also throughout their lives. This knowledge can build children’s competencies and resilience, contributing to new cultural norms of non-violence in gendered and sexual relationships. With a growing diversity in the make-up of families, it is now more critical than ever that teacher training programs move away from a single way of knowing and make room for multiple perspectives, which in turn influence innovative kinds of teaching decisions and practices. This research illustrates that it is possible for early childhood teachers to use feminist poststructuralism and queer theory to deepen their understandings and responses to children’s talk, actions, and play regarding sex, gender, and sexuality and to use these understandings to inform their professional practice. Copyright 2014 by April Larremore ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1. TROUBLING THE DISCOURSE OF CHILDHOOD ................................. 1 Topic of Inquiry ..................................................................................................... 4 Research Significance .......................................................................................... 5 Representation of the Dissertation ....................................................................... 8 Theoretical Disclosure ........................................................................................ 10 Poststructuralism ................................................................................................ 11 Feminist Poststructuralism ................................................................................. 12 Approaches to Knowledge ....................................................................... 14 Language ................................................................................................. 16 Discourse ................................................................................................. 17 Subjectivity ............................................................................................... 18 Power ....................................................................................................... 19 Deconstruction ......................................................................................... 20 Feminist Poststructuralism and the Construction of Gender ............................... 21 Queer Theory ..................................................................................................... 22 Representations of Childhood and Research ..................................................... 24 The Construction of the Child .................................................................. 25 The Discourse of Childhood Innocence ................................................... 27 Summary ............................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 2. CONDUCTING A RECONFIGURED AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ............... 32 Research Focus ................................................................................................. 32 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................... 34 What is Autogethnography? ............................................................................... 35 Reconfigured Autoethnography .......................................................................... 36 Data Sources and Analysis................................................................................. 42 Construction of Field Notes ...................................................................... 42 Construction of Reflective Journal ........................................................... 44 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................... 44 Representation ........................................................................................ 45 iii Exploring the Data ................................................................................... 48 Limitations of Qualitative Inquiry ......................................................................... 51 Troubling Observation.............................................................................. 51 Troubling Voice ........................................................................................ 51 Troubling Authenticity in Voice ................................................................. 54 Research Implementation ................................................................................... 55 Participants in the Study .......................................................................... 55 Ethical Concerns ...................................................................................... 55 Informed Consent .................................................................................... 57 Summary ............................................................................................................ 58 CHAPTER 3. UNDERSTANDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS .................................. 59 Summary of the Research Study ........................................................................ 60 Shifting Subjectivities, Multiple Voices, and the Making of a Teacher ..... 61 Young Children Eager to talk about Sex, Gender, and Sexuality ....................... 64 Opening Up New Spaces for Young Children’s Thinking on Gender .................. 66 Heteronormativity in Early Childhood Education................................................. 71 Systems of Power and Normalization ................................................................. 76 Nonlinear Data (Re) Presentation ....................................................................... 80 Multivocal Autoethnographic Text - Trying On ......................................... 82 Multivocal Autoethnographic Text – Being In ........................................... 88 Multivocal Autoethnographic Text - Becoming ......................................... 91 Summary ............................................................................................................ 93 CHAPTER 4. RETHINKING GENDERED PRACTICES .............................................. 95 Review of the Study ............................................................................................ 96 The Research ..................................................................................................... 97 Understandings Related to Specific Research Questions........................ 98 Systems of Discourse and Power ..................................................................... 100 Discourse of Childhood Innocence ........................................................ 101 Discourse of the Adult/Child Dichotomy ................................................. 102 Discourse of Child Development ............................................................ 103 Discourse of Developmentally Appropriate Practice .............................. 105 Discourses of Gender Identity Construction ........................................... 108 iv Discourse of Heteronormatization .......................................................... 110 Discussion of the Study ...................................................................................
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