Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The sex assigned to a child at birth directs more or less how one is raised, and what kind of
gendered images and models the outside world offers the child. Guiding a child toward
activities and behavior that are thought to be typical for a girl or a boy are not always
conscious decisions. That is why gender-sensitive education is first and foremost about
challenging oneself as an adult, and questioning ones own customary ways of thinking.
A gender-sensitive educator chooses a doll, a car, or building blocks for a child to play with
on the basis of which skills the toys develop, not according to the sex of the child.
Promoting gender equality offers educators means to prevent bullying, to support
friendships between the sexes and, and it also lessens the stress from gendered
expectations experienced by both children and adults.
Gender-sensitivity in early
childhood education
equal encounter in nursery schools
Girls were more often than boys the unofficial little helpers of the educators.
They were asked to take and bring different objects, to act as a back-up
memory or to keep company for smaller children.
Boys were given twice as much attention, compared with the girls (for example
closeness, targeted speech), in controlled play-situations. The attention given to
children was not attached to disruptive behavior in observed situations.
Girls were expected to be independent and to take initiative, whereas boys may
have been helped, for example, in getting dressed, even when they did not ask
for help.
More attention was given to the already more talkative and quick-witted
children than to the quieter and more retiring ones.
The spatial arrangements of nursery schools did not necessarily support
childrens play in mixed groups, since the play spaces were mostly grouped
according to the theme of the play. This kind of spatial arrangement does not
necessarily support practicing various skills with the help of play, if the children
are constantly diverted to same kinds of playing situations.
The everyday life of a nursery school is often quite noisy. Intervening in
redundant noise with different means is an active measure in order to make the
sound-space more equal.
The meal situations in nursery schools were often quite equal: all children were
heard, seen and named.