REPRESENTATIONS OF PRESCHOOL TEACHERS ON CHILDREN'S GENDER AS A FACTOR IN DIFFERENTIATING THEIR FREE PLAY IN THE SCHOOLYARD
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v10i4.1824Keywords:
representations, gender, free play in the playground, gender disparity, gender segrega-tion, kindergarten teachersAbstract
Gendered subjectivities are shaped within social structures, such as education, where gender inequalities intersect with other forms of social disparity. The individuals who operate within these structures play a role in both reproducing and maintaining ine-qualities, as well as in actively challenging them. However, as active agents, they can challenge gender order and inequalities, but their capacity to do so is subject to the constraints imposed by the framework in which they operate. The interaction between teachers and children in the schoolyard is a given, with the schoolyard serving as a space of socialization and interaction, thus becoming a field for the formation and nego-tiation of children's subjectivities. Teachers, through their presence in the schoolyard and their representations of children's gender characteristics, are expected to influence the formation of gendered subjectivities. The representations of preschool teachers re-garding children's gender as a factor in differentiating their free play in the schoolyard were the subject of this qualitative study, conducted through interviews. Twelve kin-dergarten teachers working in public and private schools in the Thessaloniki area par-ticipated. The thematic analysis of the data revealed that while the sample of teachers expressed opposition to gender segregation and inequalities, they adopted a neutral stance toward what occurs in the schoolyard. Moreover, many justified the differences they observed in boys' and girls' play in biological terms, among other reasons.
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