Browsing by Author "Kamula-Enqvist, Emmi"

This study examines early childhood gender identity development, gender diversity in early childhood and the nature of gender perspectives in Western society. The study also examines how individual's own internal gender identity becomes visible and how the definition of gender in society and individual's own experience encounter. The aim is to specify how the gender diversity in early childhood has been encountered and how it should be encountered in the early childhood education settings. The study shows that individual's gender identity is formed in a process interacting with the environment, and science does not offer only one explanation for gender identity development. The data consists of a systematic literature review, blog texts from a gender diversity blog, and interviews carried out in writing. The systematic literature review contains 14 articles that approached gender from the perspective of early childhood and early childhood educational settings. The data contains 30 citations from the blog and six interviews. The data was analyzed using content analysis. The analysis consisted three main categories. The First category is Individual's self-defined gender identity based on internal experience which is the strongest gender identity element. Social pressure or the individual's physical body don't have any effect on this internal experience. The study found out the desire of being part of group of peers and the feeling of left out have strong impact in children's lives. The Second category is Society as a determiner in individual's collection of gender roles. This study shows that society is strongly based on a binary gender system, and this system shuts out individuals who are part of gender diversity. The Third category is Gender diversity in early childhood educational settings. This category shows that early childhood educators' awareness of gender diversity should be increased and gender-sensitive pedagogy must still be actively developed and considered as a standard in early childhood educational settings. It will benefit all children equally.