Browsing by Author "Vartiainen, Essi"

Objectives. The purpose of this research was to describe the conceptions of 34 kindergarten teachers' of gender diversity and gender sensitive education. My own observations and previous research show that the everyday practices of early childhood education are gendered. The new National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (2016) defines early childhood education as gender sensitive education, which is why the subject is topical in the field of education right now. Another purpose of this research was to increase the general knowledge of gender diversity and gender sensitive education and to help making early childhood education more equal for all children. The research questions of this thesis were: 1. What kind of conceptions do kindergarten teachers have of gender diversity? 2. What kind of conceptions do kindergarten teachers have of gender sensitive education? Methods. The research was a qualitative study based on the written answers collected from 34 kindergarten teachers. The data collection method was online survey and data analysis method used was phenomenographical analysis. Results and conclusions. The main result of the research suggested that the interviewed kindergarten teachers held two different conceptions of gender diversity which seemed to affect their conceptions of gender sensitive education. Gender diversity was understood either as two different biological sexes or as more diverse including also non-binary identities. In this research, the conceptions of kindergarten teachers' of gender sensitive education were divided into three categories of description. The conceptions were shown in phenomenographical categories of description, which were A) conception that opposed gender sensitive education, B) conception that saw gender sensitive education through gender binary and C) conception that understood gender sensitive education through gender diversity. Based on categories B and C teachers found gender sensitive education a meaningful part of early childhood education.