Browsing by Author "Mäki, Maija"

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the extent, to which gender sensitivity is being understood as part of the daily life of early childhood education. The aim of this thesis is to find out to what extent teachers perceive gender sensitivity in daily life of early childhood education, and how important they perceive it for the child. The thesis brings the reflections of the gender sensitive education and its implementation on daily life according to early childhood education teachers. The topic of gender sensitive education has been widely talked about in the media, and for example studies comparing academic success by gender have emerged. Previous studies about gender sensitive education have shown that early childhood education staff play an enormously important role in how gender sensitive education works in practice in day care centers. Studies have shown that with the gender sensitive education teachers can undo children’s assumptions of traditional gender performances, as well as increase acceptance between each other (Warin & Adriany, 2017). For this to happen, the general atmosphere in the day care center needs to be safe and thus open for children’s initiatives. My assumption was, that the interviewees had heard about gender sensitive education through the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (2018), but it has not necessarily been thoroughly internalized into everyday life of early childhood education. This allowed me to assume that the teachers I interviewed had not received enough training about gender sensitivity, which may be the reason they have not been able to implement it comprehensively enough in their job. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative research. The data of this thesis consisted of the responses of five early childhood education teachers to an e-mailed questionnaire survey. The interviewees have been collected from the region of Southern-Finland and there are differences in the lengths of their work experience. The data was analysed by using directed content analysis. The most significant result was the uncertainty and lack of knowledge of the teachers. However, the core points of gender sensitivity were clear and there have been brief conversations about it because of the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (2018). There isn’t enough confidence to use the principles consciously. The lack of comprehensive information was perceived as worrying, from which it can be interpreted that the topic was considered important. Gender sensitivity was understood as part of creating equality and acceptance of differences. There had not been many discussions of gender roles in everyday life except for brief reflections on “girls’ and boys’” colours or roles while playing. Gender sensitivity was taken for granted as a part of pedagogy, so according to the interviewees, it did not have to be brought up by constant discussion. No specific measures have been taken to promote the gender sensitivity. The lack of open discussion was therefore clear.