Browsing by Author "Shemeikka, Kati-Rosita"

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Gender sensitive education takes into account the role of gender in all aspects of institutional upbringing and it aspires to see individuals as one-of-a-kind. A gender sensitive kindergarten teacher is able to recognize patterns and schemas in their own way of thinking which reproduce gender roles and from there end up reproducing them in the kindergarten. Therefore the ability to reflect one’s work is crucial. Previous research shows that the field of early childhood education is full of binary norms and regulations in regards of gender. In the context of institutional early childhood education the offered gender roles (for example during play) are quite often terribly stereotypical and dualistic. This study aims to report and describe how kindergarten teachers regard gender sensitive education in the context of early childhood education, what kind of personal experiences they have of gender sensitivity in their line of work, their general thoughts and feelings about the whole spectrum of gender as well as equality and the challenges they have faced in respect of the whole issue. The nature is the study was qualitative and the matter was collected by semi-structured theme interviews. The three interviewed kindergarten teachers work for the city of Helsinki. The collected matter was analyzed by content analysis. All of the interviewed kindergarten teachers aimed to be equal and gender sensitive in their work. They thought that children should be able to express their gender in a diverse way and to be able to experiment with different kinds of gender roles through play. The interviewed kindergarten teachers saw equality as a base and a foundation for education and upbringing. As a challenge for the actualization of gender sensitive education they mentioned the lack of resources such as time, the hectic schedule of a kindergarten and general lack of understanding of the issue.