Browsing by Author "Teräs, Tiina"

Previous studies (Eidevald 2009, Lappalainen 2006, Odenbring 2010, Värtö 2000 and Ylitapio-Mäntylä 2009) have shown that early childhood educators have different attitudes towards girls than towards boys. In this study I examine gender and equality in child day care in Finland. The study is a multimethodic feminist and educational study. It has been conducted using content analysis as well as aspects of ethnographical research, conversation analysis and discourse analysis. The research material was collected in a Helsinki nursery school where I spent three days observing and videotaping three educators working with a group of children aged 3–5 years. I also carried out interviews with the educators. The analysis focuses on the educators’ verbal interaction with the children and their thoughts on gender and equality and how these have been taken into account in the early childhood education practices. In verbal communication I paid particular attention to the way the educators praised the girls and boys. I also examined which gendered expressions were used. In addition, I analysed two phenomena which were shown in the empirical material: boys and technology and a girl who on a few occasions was left almost entirely without attention. I divide the data from the interviews into two themes: the educators’ thoughts on girls and boys, and their views on the nursery school’s gendered and equality practices. I was also interested in finding out the educators' opinion of the way the children's parents collaborate with the nursery school. The analysis shows that the educators praise boys more than girls. Praise content and structure were also different when praising boys than when praising girls. The results confirmed earlier research findings on gendered practices in early childhood education. The interactions strengthened the view that technology belongs to boys. The girls were expected to be more independent in, for example, dressing and undressing situations. In the interviews the educators described boys more active and girls as more skillful in tasks requiring precision. They mentioned also that nowadays fathers get more involved in the collaboration with the nursery school than before. Although the educators opinion was that the nursery school promotes equality, a detailed analysis shows that equality doesn’t exist in all early childhood practices. Further studies on gender and equality are definitely needed in the field of early childhood education.