THIS PAPER IS BASED ON a small-scale qualitative study framed by poststructuralist and queer perspectives that explored how young children talk about gender and sexuality while engaging with activities commonly found in early years settings. Findings show that children are eager to talk about gender and sexuality and do have a considerable amount of sexual knowledge. Questions are raised regarding the role of the early years' teacher and the responsibility the field has for opening up spaces in the curriculum for children's gender and sexual knowledge to be heard, valued and considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlaimoS., & HekmanS. (2008). Introduction: Emerging models of materiality in feminist theory. In AlaimoS. & HekmanS. (Eds.) Feminist materialisms, (pp. 1-19). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
2.
BlaiseM. (in press). Designing to scale: When size matters. In MacNaughtonG., RolfeS., & Siraj-BlatchfordI. (Eds.), Doing early childhood research: Theory and practice. An international perspective (2nd edn).NY: Allen & Unwin.
3.
BlaiseM. (2005). Playing it straight!: Uncovering gender discourses in the early childhood classroom.NY: Routledge Press.
4.
BlaiseM. (2009). What a girl wants, what a girl needs: Responding to sex, gender, and sexuality in the early childhood classroom. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(4), 450–460.
5.
BlaiseM., & AndrewY. (2005). How ‘bad’ can it be?: Troubling gender, sexuality, and teaching in early childhood education. In YellandN. (Ed.) Critical Issues in Early Childhood (pp.49-57). Berkshire, UK: Open University Press.
6.
BhanaD. (2007). “Emma and Dave sitting on a tree, K I S S I N G”: Boys, girls and the heterosexual matrix in a South African primary school. International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, 5 (2) pp. 83-96.
7.
BoldtG. (1997). Sexist and heterosexist responses to gender bending in an elementary classroom. In TobinJ. (ed), Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education, (pp. 188-213), New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
8.
Brilleslijper-KaterS.J., & BaartmanH.E.M. (2000). What do young children know about sex? Research on the sexual knowledge of children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. Child Abuse Review, 9, 166-182.
9.
BritzmanD. (1998). Lost subjects, contested objects: Toward a psychoanalytic inquiry of learning.New York: SUNY Press.
10.
ButlerJ. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”.New York: Routledge.
11.
ButlerJ. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity (2nd edition).New York: Routledge.
ButlerJ. (2006) Response to special issue. Troubling identities: Reflections on Judith Butler's philosophy for the sociology of education’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(4), 529–34.
CullenF., & SandyL. (2009). Lesbian Cinderella and other stories: Telling tales and researching sexualities equalities in primary schools. Sex Education, 9 (2), 141-154.
16.
DaviesB. (1989). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender.NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
17.
DaviesB. (2003). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender (2nd edn).Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
18.
DaviesB., & KasamaH. (2004) Gender in Japanese Preschools: Frogs and snails and feminist tales in Japan.Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
19.
DePalmaR. & AtkinsonE. (Eds) (2009). Interrogating heteronormativity in primary schools: The no outsiders project.Staffordshire, UK: Trentham Books Limited.
20.
EpsteinD. (1999). Sex play: Romantic significations, sexism, and silences in the schoolyard. In EpsteinD. & SearsJ. (Eds), A dangerous knowing: Sexuality, pedagogy and popular culture.London: Cassell.
21.
FoucaultM. (1978). The history of sexuality: An introduction (Vol.1).New York: Pantheon Books.
22.
FoucaultM. (1986). Of other spaces, Diacritics, 16, 22-27.
23.
FrancisB. (1998). Power plays: Primary school children's conception of gender, power and adult work.Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
24.
GrieshaberS. (2004). Rethinking parent and child conflict.New York: Routledge.
25.
JacksonS. (2006). Heterosexuality, sexuality and gender: Rethinking the intersections. In RichardsonD., McLaughlinJ., & CaseyM.E. (Eds.) Intersections between feminist and queer theory, (pp. 38-58). NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
KelleyP., BuckinghamD., & DaviesH. (1999). Talking dirty: Children, sexual knowledge and television. Childhood, 8(2), 221–242.
28.
MacNaughtonG. (2000). Rethinking gender in early childhood education.London, UK: Paul Chapmen Publishing.
29.
ReayD. (2001). ‘Spice girls’, ‘nice girls’, ‘girlies’ and ‘tomboys’: gender discourses, girls' cultures and femininities in the primary classroom, Gender and Education, 13(2), 153–166.
30.
RenoldE. (2005). Girls, boys and junior sexualities: Exploring children's gender and sexual relations in the primary school.NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
31.
RenoldE. (2006). “They won't let us play…unless you're going out with one of them”: Girls, boys, and Butler's ‘heterosexual matrix’ in the primary years. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(4), 489–509.
32.
RichA. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and the lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 5, 631-660.
33.
RichardsonD. (2008). Conceptualizing gender, In D. Richardson & V. Robinson (Eds). Introducing gender and women's studies, (3rd edition) (pp. 1-19). NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
34.
RobinsonK. (2005). Doing anti-homophobic and anti-heterosexism in early childhood education: Moving beyond the immobilising impacts of ‘risks’, ‘fears’ and ‘silences’. Can we afford not to? Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 6(2), 175–188.
35.
RobinsonK., & DaviesC. (2007). Tomboys and sissy girls: Young girls' negotiations of femininity and masculinity. International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, 5(2), 17–31.
36.
SearsJ.T. (2009). Interrogating the subject: Queering elementary education, 10 years on. Sex Education, 9(2), 193–200.
37.
SedgwickE. K. (1990). Epistemology of the closet.Berkely, CA: University of California Press.
38.
SkattebolJ. (2006). Playing boys: the body, identity and belonging in the early years. Gender and Education, 18(5), 507–522.
39.
TaylorA., & BlaiseM. (Eds.) (2007). International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood: Special Queer Issue, 5(2). The Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, Melbourne University.
40.
TaylorA., & RichardsonC. (2005). Queering home corner. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 6(2), 163–173.
41.
TobinJ. (Ed.) (1997). Making a place for pleasure: The missing discourse of desire in early childhood.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
42.
WarnerM. (1993). Fear of a queer planet.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
43.
YellandN. (Ed.) (1998). Gender in early childhood.New York: Routledge.
